ed, dear? We'll go right up to your room."

"No, I'm really not a bit tired," explained Arethusa, as she scrambled
to her feet to start upstairs, "not the very weeniest bit. But Aunt
'Liza said I must lie down and rest just as soon as I got here."

Elinor looked a trifle puzzled. "But if you're really not tired...."

"But I must rest. Aunt 'Liza said so."

Arethusa was sure that she had disobeyed Miss Eliza enough for one day,
in the forgetting what she had said about strange men and the attitude
to be adopted towards them, and she had gone on from that to lose her
purse. There was no telling how long Miss Eliza's arm might be, how far
her wrath might reach. It was best not to tempt Providence.

She _would rest_.

"Wait," said Ross as an answer to his wife's bewilderment, "just wait
until you know Miss Eliza and all of this will be fully explained."

CHAPTER XIII

A reward of some description was surely due Miss Eliza's niece for her
behaviour on this occasion, for no creature ever felt less like even
the outward semblance of "resting" than did Arethusa. While regard for
the strictest truth will not permit it to be stated that much rest was
obtained from her method of carrying out Miss Eliza's command; still,
she remained in her room with every appearance of obedience and
intervals were spent on the "squshy" green sofa, when she could have
talked and talked to Ross and Elinor the entire afternoon without the
slightest hint of fatigue.

Arethusa's delight in her room more than repaid Elinor for any trouble
which the fixing of it might have been. Her little gasping "Oh!" when
the door was first opened, and the silent, shining-eyed gaze around
afterwards were the most genuine and appreciated tribute of admiration
she could have given.

She would never have dreamed that the mere gathering together of
furniture and pictures and other objects of familiar names which were
the commonplaces of everyday life at the Farm could present an
appearance so beautiful. When once on the sofa, tucked under a fluffy
green coverlid by Elinor's kind hands, she could not stay for long. A
hundred times did she bob up to examine various fascinating objects
that attracted her attention as her eager regard explored while she lay
there, "resting."

The bath-room delighted her beyond any power of her expression. It was
a far more wonderful piece of work as a bath-room than the one at
Timothy's house which she had deeply envied h