closed the panel hastily, turned round the
carved bud till it was closed, and then walked to the window, turning
her back on her temptation.

She heaved a sigh of relief.

'I am sure I deserve praise for such virtue. No one can taunt me with
a woman's curiosity after this! Now the question is, shall I tell the
others? I don't think I will. It wouldn't do to let the maids get
wind of it. I shall write and tell Hugh, of course. How interested he
will be! It was really rather clever of me to find it out, for it is a
wonderfully ingenious device. And I suppose the old man never dreamt
of women deciphering his Arabic characters, much less following the
ambiguous hint given in his motto.'

And then sitting down at the writing-table, Clare commenced a letter at
once to Captain Knox. Her discovery delighted her, and for the rest of
the day she was sunshine itself.

Miss Villars arrived in the afternoon, bringing with her two shy, lanky
girls of fourteen and fifteen.

'I knew you would let me bring two of my visitors,' she said aside to
Agatha; 'they are recovering from influenza. Their father is a curate
in Liverpool, and I am trying to feed them up, and get a little colour
in their cheeks before they go home again. They are rather shy, but it
is such a pleasure for them to be in the country.'

Elfie soon took possession of the girls, and wandered round the garden
with them, where their tongues unloosed, and they poured forth such a
flood of chatter that she had no difficulty in entertaining them.

'We are having such a lovely time. Miss Villars' house is like one you
read of in books. We never thought we should ever stay in one like it.
We feel as if we are in fairyland. You see, we are very poor, and only
keep one servant, and there are seven of us at home, and our house is
in a terrace, and smuts, and soot, and dust fly in at the windows all
day long. Miss Villars is awfully nice, and she makes us enjoy
ourselves. At home one feels quite wicked if one reads a storybook,
because there are so many of the boys' stockings to be mended, and
cooking, and our own lessons in between, for we go to a day school for
three hours every morning. Now here, Miss Villars takes us out in the
garden after breakfast under her shady trees, and puts one of us in a
hammock, and the other in an easy chair, and leaves us there with some
delicious books for a couple of hours. And then we see a dainty lunch
coming out to us a