to it?"

"It's about three miles," said Sir Maurice.

"Oh, that's nothing--at least not for me. But you?" said Miss Lambart,
who had an utterly erroneous belief that Sir Maurice was something of a
weakling.

"I can manage it. Your companionship will stimulate my flagging
limbs," said Sir Maurice. "Indeed, a real country walk on a warm and
pleasant afternoon will be an experience I haven't enjoyed for years."

Miss Lambart was not long getting ready; and they set out across the
park toward the knoll which rose, a rounded green lump, above the
surface of the distant wood. Sir Maurice had once walked to it with
the Twins; and he thought that his memory of the walk helped by a few
inquiries of people they met would take him to it on a fairly straight
course. It was certainly very pleasant to be walking with such a
charming companion through such a charming country.

As soon as they were free of the gardens Miss Lambart said eagerly:
"Where are we going to? Where do you think the princess is?"

"You've been here a month. Haven't you heard of the Dangerfield
twins?" said Sir Maurice.

"Oh, yes; we were trying to find children to play with the princess;
and Doctor Arbuthnot mentioned them. But he said that they were not
the kind of children for her, though they were the only high and
well-born ones the baroness was clamoring for, in the neighborhood. He
seemed to think that they would make her rebellious."

"Then the princess didn't know them?" said Sir Maurice quickly.

"No."

"I wonder," said Sir Maurice skeptically.

"We found a little boy called Rupert Carrington to play with her--a
very nice little boy," said Miss Lambart.

"Wiggins! The Twins' greatest friend! Well, I'll be shot!" cried Sir
Maurice; and he laughed.

"But do you mean to say that you think that these children have
something to do with the princess' disappearance? How old are they?"
said Miss Lambart in an incredulous tone, for fixed very firmly in her
mind was the belief that the princess had been carried off by the
Socialists and foreigners.

"I never know whether they are thirteen or fourteen. But I do know
that nothing out of the common happens in the Deepings without their
having a hand in it. I have the honor to be their uncle," said Sir
Maurice.

"But they'd never be able to persuade her to run away with them. She's
a timid child; and she has been coddled and cosseted all her life till
she is delicate to fragility,