in distress, and scanning every inch of wall, floor,
and ceiling with her eager glance.

"They are staring me in the face most likely; they are right before my
eyes, and I can't see them!" she cried in despair. "My keys! My keys!
If I can't find them, I can do nothing. I shall be disgraced for ever!
I should have given out the stores yesterday, but I put it off,
miserable, procrastinating wretch that I am! Oh, keys, keys, where are
you, keys? Don't hide from me, _please_, I want you so badly--badly!"

But the keys refused to reveal themselves. They were lying contentedly
in the bottom of a china vase on the staircase, into which they had been
dropped midway in a hasty descent the day before, and, however willing
they might have been to obey their mistress's request, they were clearly
powerless in the matter, since not even the echo of her voice reached
their ears. Peggy searched in a frenzy of impatience, summoned a
housemaid to assist her, and turned the contents of drawers and
cupboards upside down upon her bed, but no success greeted her efforts.
At the end of ten minutes' time she was in a more pitiable plight than
before, since every likely place had been explored, and not the wildest
idea had she where next to repair.

"Wh-at," quoth the housemaid tremblingly, "what shall I say to cook?"
and at that Miss Peggy's eyes sent out a flash which made her look the
image of her soldier father.

"Tell her to get on with what she can," she cried. "She shall have the
stores in five minutes from now!" and away she flew downstairs, leaving
the astonished maid to wonder whether her brain had given way beneath
the strain of the occasion.

Get into the store-room, Peggy was determined she _would_! By fair
means or foul, that citadel must be stormed, and its treasures brought
forth. If the door were closed, the window remained open, and the
gardener's ladder lay conveniently at hand. To scale it so far as the
second storey could be no difficult task for a girl who had been taught
to climb trees and scramble over fences by the most fearless of
masculine guides, and once inside the room the rest was easy, for in the
first flush of careful forethought, a duplicate key had been provided,
which hung on a nail near the door, ready for use if need should arise.
It was characteristic of Peggy that its resting-place should have been
inside the room, instead of out, but there it was, and nothing remained
but to get possessio