h if any one had seen us. Well, Mad
Jeremy did. For we could hear peal upon peal of wicked, sneering
laughter pursue us, as we went in single file across the road, over the
stile, and across the moor.

At the stile over the highroad I came up closer to Harriet, owing to a
slight hesitation on her part, and the switch she gave her skirts to
escape the contagion of my touch, was something to see. I had always
thought I was something of a favourite wherever I went. So I took the
worse with such treatment.

However, I put it down to Harriet Caw's having been brought up in
London. My father always told me to watch out for London folk--you
never could tell what they would be up to. Certainly not with Harriet.

CHAPTER XV

THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES--A GIRL!

Mr. Ablethorpe appeared to have had a much better time of it with Miss
Constantia than I had had with her sister--perhaps, because she was
younger by some minutes, and was quite conscious of being pretty, so
didn't need to be told. Yet, when you come to think of it, I had done
a heap more for Harriet Caw, than the Hayfork Minister for her sister.
Had I not rushed to defend her from no less a foe than Mad Jeremy? And
there were precious few in the two parishes of Breckonside and
Breckonton who would have done the like. So she need not have run
upstairs when she got home, pushing her step-grandmother aside and
saying: "Out of the way, Susan Fergusson!" Neither had she any need to
slam the door of her room, for it was her twin sister's as well as
hers, at any rate.

And though I did not like Constantia so well to start with, I must say
that her conduct was a great contrast to that of her sister Harriet. I
could not help remarking it. She came quite peaceably to the door with
Mr. Ablethorpe. Then she went back and found his hat for him, which he
had forgotten. And she stood smiling and waving adieux under the
bunches of purple creepers about the porch--like--well, I declare, like
the picture of "Good-bye, Sweetheart, Good-bye!" in the "Keepsake" book.

And then, thinking it over, I took it all back and preferred in my
heart the slam of Harriet's door. There was more meaning to it.

But Mr. Ablethorpe did not appear to notice. He thought that he had
sown good seed on very promising soil.

"She seemed quite in favour of the Eastward position," he said
thoughtfully, "and she understands our argument in favour of the
'Missale Romanum' and with regar