o in the best regulated families,--it was decided to put a
discreet person "on the job," and discover first of all what was
really going on.

The result of the investigation was at first consoling, and then
amazing.

They discovered that the bunches of violets were ordered at a smart
down town florist by the girl herself, and by her order delivered at
the school door by a liveried messenger boy, who, by her orders,
awaited her arrival. As for the closed carriage, that she also bespoke
herself at a smart livery stable where she was known. When she entered
it, she was at once driven to the Park Street station, where she
bought a round trip ticket to Waltham. There she walked to the river,
hired a boat, rowed herself up stream, tied her boat at a wooden bank,
climbed the slope, and sat there all the afternoon, sometimes reading,
and sometimes merely staring out at the river, or up at the sky. At
sunset she rowed back to the town, returned to the city, and walked
from the station to her home.

This all seemed simple enough, but it puzzled the father, it made him
unquiet in his mind. Why all this mystery? Why--well, why a great many
things, for of course the Principal Girl had to prepare for these
absences, and, although the little fibs she told were harmless
enough--well, why? The literature teacher, who had been watching her
carefully, had her theory. She knew a lot about girls. Wasn't she once
one herself? So it was by her advice that the family doctor was taken
into the family confidence, chiefly because neither father nor mother
had the pluck to tackle the matter--they were ashamed to have their
daughter know that she had been caught in even a small deception--it
seemed so like intruding into her intimate life.

There are parents like that, you know.

The doctor had known the girl since he ushered her into the world. If
there were any one with whom she had shown the slightest sign of
intimacy, it was with him. Like all doctors whose associations are so
largely with women, and who are moderately intelligent and
temperamental, he knew a great deal about the dangers of the
imagination. No one ever heard just what passed between the two. One
thing is pretty sure, he made no secrets regarding the affair, and at
the end of the interview he advised the parents to take the girl out
of school, take her abroad, keep her active, present her at courts,
show her the world, keep her occupied, interest her, keep her among
peopl