kind of relief to
put the blame on himself.

'I said you were a rotter, and she said you weren't,' he jerked out; 'and
I said you were only decent to her because she was an interesting case,
and she said----'

'All right,' said the Doctor, hastily. He supposed truthfulness was an
excellent thing in theory, but it added another terror to boys.

As they neared the village Christopher summoned up courage to ask one more
question.

'Did you come out on purpose to bring me back?' he inquired with an effort.

'Yes,' said Dr. Hurst, briefly.

Christopher puzzled over this. 'But--but how did you know I'd gone after
you?' he asked curiously.

'Jill told me you'd disappeared, and I guessed,' said Dr. Hurst. If it had
not been so dark, Kit might have seen a smile flicker across the serious
face of his companion.

'Did Jill think about me, then?' cried the boy, eagerly. 'Perhaps she
isn't so wild with me after all!'

'Not so wild with you as you deserve, I dare say,' remarked Dr. Hurst.
'Indeed, it was because Miss Urquhart was making such an unnecessary fuss
about you, that I promised to come and look for you.'

He thought that the boy, although a boy, would not notice the slip he
had made just before in calling his pretty cousin by her first name;
but Kit noticed fast enough. He had not much time, however, to think about
it before they pulled up with a jerk at the back entrance to Wootton
Beeches. He began to mumble out his thanks, while the Doctor helped him
out of the overcoat and then put it on himself; but the young man cut
him short.

'Do you suppose I drove all those miles in the rain, at the end of a hard
day's work, for the sake of a scamp like you?' he growled; and Christopher
was left staring after him in the darkness.

In the holidays supper was not before nine o'clock at Wootton Beeches, so
the boy had plenty of time to make himself presentable before the bell
rang. He looked eagerly round the drawing-room when he went into it, but
only the three elder boys were there.

'Where's Jill?' he asked.

'Oh, it's you, is it?' observed Egbert, without answering him. As the
eldest of the family, he felt that he ought to administer some sort of
rebuke to Kit for the commotion he had caused in the household. Indeed,
he had said as much to the others before the boy came in; but there was
something about Kit that would make any one fight shy of rebuking him,
when it came to the point. So Egbert was rather reliev