t I won't be unmaidenly any
more, dear Heppie--at least, if I can help it--if you'll only do me one
great favour."

"What is it?" Miss Hepburn inquired cautiously.

"Tell me what's become of my mother. Oh, you needn't be afraid! Grandma
let it out that she's alive. She's not even old yet--not so _very_ old.
You must tell me what's happened to her."

"Nothing creditable, I fear," replied Janet, finding a certain sad
pleasure in the sins of another, so different from her own good self.
"She has, I believe, continued to act on the stage."

"I'm sure she must be the greatest success!" exclaimed Barrie.

"As to that, I have no means of knowing. I always skip news of the
theatre in reading the papers aloud to Mrs. MacDonald."

"Oh, just to _think_ that any day I might have seen things about my
mother in the newspapers, and perhaps even her pictures! I wish I'd
known! I'd have got at the papers somehow before they were cremated. Now
I understand why Grandma tries to keep them out of my hands."

"There were many reasons for that," said Miss Hepburn, loyal to her
employer's convictions and her own pallid copies of those convictions.
"No really _nice_ girl ever reads the newspapers, or would wish to do
so. They are full of wickedness. There is much I have to miss out."

"Do you think my mother has kept her married name for the stage?" Barrie
wanted to know.

"That," answered Miss Hepburn almost eagerly, "has been poor Mrs.
MacDonald's greatest trial--except your father's death. To think that
the name of her son--the name of his great ancestors--should be bandied
about in the theatres!"

"Then she does call herself MacDonald!"

"I fear that is the case. But now it will be useless asking me any more
questions, for I shall not answer them. Will you let me see you begin
your supper?"

"No, dear Heppie, for I'm not hungry; and I want to think. Thank you so
much for talking to me, and being so kind. I believe you'd often like to
be kind when you daren't."

Miss Hepburn looked slightly surprised. She had expected to be teased
for further information, rather than thanked cordially for that already
doled out. "I try to do my duty both to your grandmother and you," she
returned. "I really must go now, and I shall not have to lock your door
again, as Mrs. MacDonald considers the punishment over. You must be
careful to come down the minute you hear the bell, and not be late for
prayers."

"Good-bye, if you must go," said Ba