mince-meat.

"I say, aunty--"

"Well, Lapwing?"

"When Satan turns saint, suspicion is safe, is it not?"

"What do you mean, Lapwing?"

"Why, just now the professor came to me, politely apologized for his
late rudeness, and proposed that I should go with you to hear Mr.
Willcoxen's lecture, while he, the professor, goes to Leonardtown to
fulfill an engagement. I say, aunty, I sniff a plot, don't you?"

"I don't know what to make of it, Lapwing. Are you going?"

"Of course I am; I always intended to."

No more was said at the time.

Immediately after dinner Dr. Grimshaw ordered his horse, and saying that
he was going to Leonardtown and should not be back till the next day,
set forth.

And after an early tea, Mrs. Waugh and Jacquelina set out in the family
sleigh. A swift run over the hard, frozen snow brought them to Old
Fields, where they stopped a moment to pick up Marian, and then shooting
forward at the same rate of speed, they reached the lecture-room in full
time.

Jacquelina was perhaps the very least enchanted of all his hearers--she
was, in fact, an exception, and found the discourse so entirely
uninteresting that it was with difficulty she could refrain from yawning
in the face of the orator. Mrs. Waugh also, perhaps, was but half
mesmerized, for her eyes would cautiously wander from the lecturer's
pulpit to the side window on her right hand. At length she stooped and
whispered to Jacquelina:

"Child, be cautious; Dr. Grimshaw is on the ground--I have seen his face
rise up to that lower pane of glass at the corner of that window,
several times. He must be crouched down on the outside."

Jacquelina gave a little start of surprise--her face underwent many
phases of expression; she glanced furtively at the indicated window, and
there she saw a pale, wild face gleam for an instant against the glass,
and then drop. She nodded her head quickly, muttering:

"Oh, I'll pay him!"

"Don't child! don't do anything imprudent, for gracious' sake! That man
is crazy--any one can see he is!"

"Oh, aunty, I'll be sure to pay him! He shan't be in my debt much
longer. Soft, aunty! Don't look toward the window again! Don't let him
perceive that we see him or suspect him--and then, you'll see what
you'll see. I have a counter plot."

This last sentence was muttered to herself by Jacquelina, who thereupon
straightened herself up--looked the lecturer in the eyes--and gave her
undevoted attention to him during th