plied she.

"I've very little doubt about it."

The old man chuckled ungallantly. "He, he," said he, "Missy, you ladies
are good enough for tea and sugar, but it takes a man to put the likes
of me right with my masters."

Armstrong flushed angrily at this speech and was about to relieve his
mind when Rosalind laughingly interposed--

"Poor old Hodder! You're quite right; I should never have been clever
enough to help you. Good-bye. I'm so glad."

To tell the truth, Miss Oliphant was a good deal more engrossed with
what the old man had let drop concerning the lost Roger than with the
tutor and his knowledge of the law of landlord and tenant.

"Suppose he did not die!" she said, half scared at the boldness of the
suggestion. "If he were to come back!" And she went back and looked
long once more at the picture. Then with less satisfaction she
contemplated her own copy. Thus employed Roger found her when he passed
her door an hour later.

"Still harping on my brother," said he.

"I've done with him, thank you," said Rosalind, handing him back the
picture. "See, I have one of my own now."

"Why, it's better than the original. I like it better."

"That shows how little you know about painting."

"It shows how much you know about my brother," said he. "But if you
like to keep the original and let me have the copy, I should consider I
had the best of the bargain."

Rosalind tossed her head and locked her own copy up in her desk.

"Roger," she said when that was done, "where did he die?"

"The date is on the picture, if one could only make it out. He was
abroad at the time, I believe."

"Where?"

"I never heard."

"Have you never tried to find out?"

Roger looked at her, startled.

"It was before I was born," said he. "Father never spoke of him. But
why do you ask?"

"Only a girl's curiosity. I thought, if any one knew, you would. But
there is the bell for lunch."

Armstrong meanwhile had been having an interview of a different kind.
He strolled into Mr Pottinger's office almost at the same time as that
worthy lawyer himself.

"So you are back?" asked the latter.

"Yes, and quite at your service," said the tutor. "I am afraid my
absence has been inconvenient. But I am ready for business now. By the
way, I have brought you back a document which must have been left on old
Hodder by mistake. I certainly did not sanction it."

The lawyer sat back in his chair and gazed at the tutor