nes to Yeld, "dear, dear old daddy? I shall always drive you
now, for you see I can manage the pony, can't I? Mr Armstrong taught
me. He says I shall make a first-rate whip. I'm sure I was very stupid
when I first tried; but he is ever so patient. He scolds sometimes, but
he always lets me know when he's pleased; so I don't mind. Do you know,
father, I'd give my head for Mr Armstrong any day, I like him so?"

Captain Oliphant shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't equal to coping with
a case of sheer infatuation.

"I'm sure," persisted Jill, flicking the pony into a trot, "he's fifty
million times as nice as that horrible Mr Ratman."

"Mr Ratman is a friend of mine," said her father, "and I fear he must
think you a very silly little girl to object to a bit of fun as you
did."

"I don't mind what he thinks. It wasn't fun at all. He hurt me very
much. Ugh!"

"Well, he was very much annoyed, and so was I, at what happened; and
when he comes here again next week--"

"Is he coming again next week?"

"Yes."

"All right. I shall run away then--or if I can't do that, I shall keep
a knife in my pocket. _Please_, father, don't let him come!"

And the child nearly cried in her eagerness.

"Listen to me, Jill," said her father sternly. "Unless you can behave
yourself sensibly I shall be very angry indeed. I expect you to be
polite to Mr Ratman while he is here."

"He'd better be polite to young ladies," said the irrepressible Jill.
"If he doesn't, I know somebody who will make him."

"Be silent, miss, and bear in mind my wishes."

That afternoon Captain Oliphant sent a polite message to his co-trustee
requesting the favour of an interview.

Mr Armstrong found him in an unusually balmy frame of mind, anxious to
go into the executorship accounts.

Everything was square and exact. The rents and other receipts were all
in order, and the amount duly paid into the bank. The tutor quite
admired his colleague's aptitude for figures, and the lucid manner in
which he accounted for every farthing which had passed through his
hands. He was hardly prepared for such precision, and there and then
modified the previous bad impression he had formed.

"It is necessary to be particular in money matters," said the captain,
"especially where the money of others is involved. Perhaps you will
check my figures, sir, and let me know if you agree in the result."

Mr Armstrong spent an afternoon painfully going over the agen