r has gone to Australia to----Oh, I must not tell you, for it
really is an awful, awful secret; but, anyhow, when he comes back
you'll be able to make a lot of money out of your money, to buy heaps
of bits of gold. Will you promise to keep that hundred pounds till
father comes home? That's what I came about, to ask you to promise,
and Watson came with me because Miss Winstead wouldn't. Will you
promise, dear Mrs. Holman?"

"Bless you, darling," said Mrs. Holman, "so that is why your father
has gone away. It do sound exciting."

"It's awfully exciting, isn't it? We shall all be so rich. Mother said
so, and mother ought to know. You'll be rich, and I'll be rich, and
dear, dear nursie will be rich, and even Watson. Watson has got such
good impulses. He'll be rich, too, and he shall marry the girl he is
fond of; and there is a friend of mine, he wants to marry another
girl, and they shall be rich and they shall marry. Oh, nobody need be
sorrowful any more. Everybody will be quite happy when father comes
back. You'll be able to have your shop in Palace Road, and oh, be sure
you keep that hundred pounds till then."

Sibyl did not wait for Mrs. Holman to make any further remark. Mrs.
Holman's eyes looked bright and excited; the child dashed out of the
shop.

"Come, Watson," she said, "you'll have a splendid appetite for your
dinner, and you have done a very good deed. You have denied yourself,
Watson, and made a sorrowful woman happy. What do you think of that?"

CHAPTER XI.

About this time Mrs. Ogilvie was subjected to a somewhat severe form
of temptation. It had been one of the biggest dreams of her life to
possess a country place. She had never been satisfied with the fact
that she and her husband must live in town except when they went to
lodgings at the seaside, or were on visits to their friends. She
wanted to have their own country place to go to just when she pleased,
a place where she could invite her friends whenever the whim seized
her. In an evil moment, almost immediately after Ogilvie had gone to
Australia, she had visited a house agent and told him some of her
desires.

"My husband is not prepared to buy a place now," she said in
conclusion, "but he soon will be in a position to do so, and I want
you to look round for me and tell me if anything nice happens to come
into the market."

The agent had replied that he would be sure to let his client know if
anything suitable came his way. Very soo