to
Prudence's side and leisurely curled himself up on the skirt of her
dress. "Say, old boy," she added, looking down at the recumbent form,
"if mother comes in and finds you here you'll leave the room
hurriedly."

Alice laid her scissors down and looked over at her friend.

"Hervey seems quieter than ever lately. He won't even take the trouble
to quarrel."

"And a good thing too," said Prudence shortly.

Sarah turned and surveyed the two girls for a moment, an amused
expression was in her dreamy eyes. Then she turned back to the window
as the first distant growl of the coming storm made itself heard.

"Hervey only quarrels when his mind is in a state of stagnation. The
mind of a man is very like a pool of water. Let it stand, and it
corrodes with matter which throws off offensive odours. The longer it
stands the worse state it gets into. Set the water in motion, turn it
into a running stream, and it at once cleanses itself. Hervey's mind
has been lately set in motion. I have noticed the change."

"He has certainly become less offensive of late," said Alice. "I
wonder what has changed him."

"Food for mental occupation," said Sarah.

"'A life monotonous, unrelieved, breeds selfish discontent,
Dead'ning a mind to lofty thought for which by nature meant.'"

Prudence brought the machine to a standstill, and propping one elbow
upon the table rested her chin upon her hand.

"I believe you are right, Aunt Sarah," she said slowly. "Hervey's
certainly found something which has set him thinking. I rather fancy I
know--or can guess--what it is that has roused him."

The old lady turned from the window and gazed curiously at her pupil.
She was keenly interested. The recreation of her life was the
observation of her kind. Her logic and philosophy may not always have
been sound, but she never failed to arrive somewhere in the region of
the truth. The recent change in Hervey had puzzled her.

"He asked me yesterday to let him see that notice in the _Free Press_
which appeared when Leslie was murdered," Prudence went on. "He also
asked me what Leslie's dying words were. He insisted on the exact
words."

"The storm will break soon," observed Sarah. She had turned away to
the window.

"I wonder," said Alice; "perhaps he has discovered----" She broke off
meaningly.

"That's what I think," said Prudence.

Sarah shook her head; but what she meant to convey was uncertain, for
she had her back turned and she said no