o see her aunt," said she.

"She's too young," said Rebecca incredulously and indignantly.

"She's sixteen," replied Mrs. Dent; "and she's always been great for
the boys."

"She's going to school four years after I get her before she thinks of
boys," declared Rebecca.

"We'll see," laughed the other woman.

After Rebecca went to bed, she lay awake a long time listening for the
sound of girlish laughter and a boy's voice under her window; then she
fell asleep.

The next morning she was down early. Mrs. Dent, who kept no servants,
was busily preparing breakfast.

"Don't Agnes help you about breakfast?" asked Rebecca.

"No, I let her lay," replied Mrs. Dent shortly.

"What time did she get home last night?"

"She didn't get home."

"What?"

"She didn't get home. She stayed with Addie. She often does."

"Without sending you word?"

"Oh, she knew I wouldn't worry."

"When will she be home?"

"Oh, I guess she'll be along pretty soon."

Rebecca was uneasy, but she tried to conceal it, for she knew of no
good reason for uneasiness. What was there to occasion alarm in the
fact of one young girl staying overnight with another? She could not
eat much breakfast. Afterward she went out on the little piazza,
although her hostess strove furtively to stop her.

"Why don't you go out back of the house? It's real pretty--a view over
the river," she said.

"I guess I'll go out here," replied Rebecca. She had a purpose: to
watch for the absent girl.

Presently Rebecca came hustling into the house through the
sitting-room, into the kitchen where Mrs. Dent was cooking.

"That rose-bush!" she gasped.

Mrs. Dent turned and faced her.

"What of it?"

"It's a-blowing."

"What of it?"

"There isn't a mite of wind this morning."

Mrs. Dent turned with an inimitable toss of her fair head. "If you
think I can spend my time puzzling over such nonsense as--" she began,
but Rebecca interrupted her with a cry and a rush to the door.

"There she is now!" she cried. She flung the door wide open, and
curiously enough a breeze came in and her own gray hair tossed, and a
paper blew off the table to the floor with a loud rustle, but there was
nobody in sight.

"There's nobody here," Rebecca said.

She looked blankly at the other woman, who brought her rolling-pin down
on a slab of pie-crust with a thud.

"I didn't hear anybody," she said calmly.

"I SAW SOMEBODY PASS THAT WINDOW!"

"You were mistaken ag