were the means of providing his father with a new patient. There was
not much wrong with the old fellow--anyone could see that--but he was
fidgety and nervous about himself, which, of course, would make him the
more valuable from a doctor's point of view. Later on the boy would be
obliged to confess his own responsibility in the accident. He would
feel a sneak if he did not, but the present was the time for action, not
confession.

"Doctor at the corner, eh? Well, well, get me to him as quickly as
possible. Shattered! Quite shattered! Must have a rest, and drive
home! Bad day's work! Never the same again!"

The old gentleman laid his hand on Jack's shoulder and hobbled stiffly
away, pausing just one moment to lift his hat and say courteously--

"My best thanks to you, madam, for your assistance." Jill and the
pretty lady were left standing in the middle of the pavement, staring
curiously into each other's faces.

The pretty lady was dark, and quite young, astonishingly young, like a
big girl dressed in important clothes. Her eyes were very bright and
happy-looking, and her lips looked as though they were made for
laughter. Jill's pert little face was left fully exposed by the cloth
cap which was perched at the top of her curly locks; her expression was
divided between triumph and consternation.

"Do you think he is hurt, really hurt?" she asked eagerly. "He made a
great fuss, but men generally do, and he walks nearly as well as before.
He can't have broken anything, can he?"

"Oh no!" cried the pretty lady. "I think you can be quite sure of that,
but at such an age any shock of this kind may be serious. He is a very
heavy old man."

She paused, looking at the girl with an inquiring expression, as if
waiting for something which had not yet been said, and to her own
astonishment Jill found herself answering the unspoken question.

"It was our fault that he fell at all. We did it. We were in the
Square hiding behind the bushes, and we had a parcel just the right size
to hold something nice and pretty--it was cotton-wool really!--very
neatly tied up. We dropped it out through the railings and waited till
people came along, and then we twitched it away by the end of a long
black thread."

The pretty lady's expression changed suddenly. Up till now she had been
all interest and vivacity, almost one might have imagined of approval,
but at the last word she frowned and shook her head. Jill expected