ow you," she answered. "Heavens!--how you've grown! But--come
upstairs. Mrs. Depledge--dinner for two, mind. Mr. Neale will dine with
me."

Neale suffered his hostess to lead him upstairs to a private parlour.
And when they were once within it, Miss Fosdyke shut the door and turned
on him.

"Now, Wallie Neale!" she said, "out with it! What is the meaning of all
this infernal mystery? And where's my uncle?"

CHAPTER VI

ELLERSDEANE HOLLOW

Neale dropped into a chair and lifted a despairing countenance to his
downright questioner.

"I don't know!" he said. "I know--nothing!"

"That is--beyond what I've already been told?" suggested the girl.

"Beyond what you've been told--exactly," replied Neale. "I'm literally
bewildered. I've been going about all day as if--as if I were dreaming,
or having a nightmare, or--something. I don't understand it at all. I
saw Mr. Horbury, of course, on Saturday--he was all right when I left
him at the bank. He said nothing that suggested anything unusual. The
whole thing is--a real facer! To me--anyhow."

Betty Fosdyke devoted a whole minute to taking a good look at her
companion: Neale, on his part, made a somewhat shyer examination of her.
He remembered her as a long-legged little girl who had no great promise
of good looks: he was not quite sure that she had grown into good looks
now. But she was an eminently bright and vivacious young woman, strong,
healthy, vigorous, with fine eyes and teeth and hair, and a colour that
betokened an intimate acquaintance with outdoor life. And already, in
the conversation at the bank, and in Polke's report of his interview
with him, he had learnt that she had developed certain characteristics
which he faintly remembered in her as a child, when she had insisted on
having her own way amongst other children.

"You've grown into quite a handsome young man, Wallie!" she observed
suddenly, with a frank laugh. "I shouldn't have thought you would,
somehow. Am I changed?"

"I should say--not in character," answered Neale shyly. "I remember you
always wanted to be top dog!"

"It's my fate!" she said, with a sigh. "I've such a lot of people and
things to look after--one has to be top dog, whether one wants to or
not. But this affair--what's to be done?"

"I understand from Polke that you've already done everything," replied
Neale.

"I've given him orders to spare neither trouble nor expense," she
asserted. "He's to send for the very best d