lucky boy! Suppose you open them
after we've gone. You'll be such a tired childie if you get too excited.
I'll send Lizzie up to you. Say good-bye to your fairy ladies."

"Good-bye, darling Bluebell! Good-bye, darling Silverstar! When am I
going to see you again?"

Ah, when indeed? thought Dona and Marjorie, as they walked down the
steep dark stairs of the little inn.

CHAPTER XXV

Charades

Hodson was waiting in the road when they came out. Miss Norton spoke to
her kindly.

"We need not trouble you to take the young ladies back to Brackenfield,
they can return with me across the moor," she said. "I dare say you are
anxious to get home to The Tamarisks."

"Yes, thank you, m'm, it's got rather late," answered Hodson gratefully,
setting off at once along the Whitecliffe Road.

The girls and Miss Norton took a short cut across the moor. They walked
on for a while in silence. Then the mistress said:

"I didn't know it was you two who have been so kind to Eric. I should
like to explain about him, and then you'll understand. My eldest brother
married very much beneath him. He died when Eric was a year old, and his
wife married again--a man in her own station, who is now keeping the
'Royal George'. I can't bear to think of Eric being brought up in such
surroundings, but I have no power to take him away; his mother and
step-father claim him. I had planned that when he is a little older I
would try to persuade them to let me send him to a good preparatory
school, but now"--her voice broke--"it is not a question of education,
but whether he will grow up at all. I am writing for a specialist to
come and see him next week. I won't give up hope. He's the only boy left
in our family. Both my other brothers were killed at the beginning of
the war." She paused for a moment, and then went on. "I'm sure you'll
understand that I did not want anybody at Brackenfield to know that my
relations live at a village inn. I have not spoken of it to Mrs.
Morrison. May I ask you both to keep my secret and not to mention the
matter at school?"

"We won't tell a soul, Miss Norton," the girls assured her.

"Thank you both for your kindness to Eric," continued the house
mistress. "You have made his little life very bright lately. I need
hardly tell you how dear he is to me."

"He's the most perfect darling we've ever met," said Dona.

After that they walked on again without speaking. All three were busy
with their own thoughts.