have an undying vendetta against him. I rather
like vendettas, don't you? There's something rather noble in the idea of
pursuing a man with implacable vengeance from generation to generation."

"I don't quite see," said Frank, "what good a vendetta is. We can't do
anything while he's in your father's house. It wouldn't be right."

"All the same," said Priscilla, "well score off him. For the immediate
present we've got to wait and watch his every movement with glittering
eyes and cynical smiles concealed behind our ingenuous brows. You
needn't say 'ingenuous' isn't a real word, because it is. I put it in an
English comp. last term and got full marks, which shows that it must be
a good word."

Priscilla was right in supposing that she would not be allowed to dine
in the dining-room. Frank faced the banquet without her support. It was
not a very pleasant meal for him. Lady Torrington shook hands with him
and asked him whether he were the boy whom she had heard reciting a
prize poem on the last Speech Day at Winchester. Frank told her that he
was at Haileybury.

"I thought it might have been you," said Lady Torrington, "because I
seem to remember your face. I must have seen you somewhere, I suppose."

She took no further notice of him during dinner. Lord Torrington took no
notice of him at all. The dinner was long and, in spite of the fact that
he had a good appetite, Frank did not enjoy himself. He was extremely
glad when Lady Torrington and Miss Lentaigne left the dining-room. He
was casting about for a convenient excuse for escape when Sir Lucius
spoke to him.

"You and Priscilla were out on the bay all day, I suppose?"

"Yes," said Frank, "we started early and sailed about."

"I daresay you'll be able to give us some information then," said
Sir Lucius. "Shall I ask him a few questions, Torrington? The police
sergeant said----"

"The police sergeant is a damned fool," said Lord Torrington. "She can't
be going about in a boat. She doesn't know how to row."

"Frank," said Sir Lucius, "did you and Priscilla happen to see anything
of a young lady----"

"You may just as well tell him the story," said Lord Torrington. "It'll
be in the papers in a day or two if we can't find her."

"Very well, Torrington. Just as you like. The fact is, Frank, that Lord
Torrington is here looking for his daughter, who has----well, a week ago
she disappeared."

"Disappeared!" said Lord Torrington. "Why not say bolted?"

"Ran away