ck twelve! I have lost a quarter of an hour. Don't keep
me another moment."

The scholar and dreamer hurried to the house. Long before he got there he
had forgotten Pauline and her childish worries. She was going to be
desperately naughty. He certainly no longer remembered those words.

Meanwhile the child stayed behind with her hands clasped.

"I wish he had told me more," she said to herself. "I don't believe God
could put this straight."

CHAPTER XV.

THE NET.

On Monday Pauline's troubles began over again. She ought to have been
very happy on this special day, for the birthday--the great, important
birthday, her very own, when she would reach the completion of her
fourteenth year--was near at hand. But although Pauline was perplexed and
unhappy, there was nevertheless a birthday feeling in the air. In the
first place, there was a great and exciting sense of mystery. The girls
were seen darting quickly here and there; in every imaginable corner
there were whispered consultations. Aunt Sophia, in particular, never
looked at Pauline without smiling. She was kindness itself. It seemed to
the poor little girl that her aunt had taken a great fancy to her. This
was the case. Miss Tredgold was interested in all her nieces, but even
Verena with her daintiness and pretty face, and Briar with her most
charming personality, did not attract Miss Tredgold as did the
blunt-looking, almost plain child who called herself Pauline.

"She has got character and independence," thought the good lady. "She
will be something by-and-by. She will always be able to hold her own in
the world. She is the kind of girl who could do much good. It hurt me
very much to send her into Punishment Land, but she is all the better for
it. Oh, yes, she must taste the rough as well as the smooth if she is to
be worth anything. She will be worth a good deal; of that I am
convinced."

Miss Tredgold, therefore, had compassion on Pauline's late indisposition,
and made lessons as easy as possible for her. Thus Pauline had very
little to do, except to think of that mystery which was growing thicker
and thicker. In one way it helped her own dilemma. With her sisters
walking in twos and threes all over the place, it would not be at all
remarkable for her to slip down at the appointed hour to the wicket-gate.
Even Penelope would not notice her, so absorbed was she in assisting
Adelaide to make a special present for Pauline.

As the day advanced the