r not. Miss Kaye said we were none of us
ever to mention it to her."

"Then I must find out a little more, and it will come as a surprise to
her in the end. Don't breathe a word to any of the other girls; I want
it to be a dead secret. Nobody knows a hint about it except you and
me."

Sylvia felt almost bursting with the importance of her quest; her
great anxiety now was to meet the lady again and make a few further
discoveries. She wished she knew her name, or where she lived, and
much regretted that she had not taken the opportunity of saying
something about Mercy at the time.

"It would be so dreadful if I didn't get a chance to see her any
more," she thought. "Perhaps she's only a visitor at Aberglyn, and she
may go home without anything happening after all."

Every day, when they went for their walk, she looked out both for the
tall, fair lady and the short, fat one, but she never saw either,
though she managed to persuade Miss Coleman to take them twice again
to the promenade, an unheard-of indulgence in one week.

"I don't know what we're to do!" she lamented to Linda. "I must see
her somehow. I feel as if Mercy's future depends upon it. She looks
nice too. I wonder how Mercy will like her for a mother. Just think of
having to get to know your own mother when you're sixteen! Wouldn't it
seem queer? Perhaps she may be in church on Sunday."

"I don't see how you could speak to her even if she were," said Linda.
"We go out by the side door, and you wouldn't be likely to meet her in
the churchyard."

"I wish Miss Kaye would take me shopping on Saturday," said Sylvia.
"It's Sadie Thompson's turn. I wonder if I could coax her to change
with me."

It was Miss Kaye's custom to allow four of the girls to go with her
each Saturday morning to Aberglyn and assist with her marketing. They
were trusted to make some of the purchases, to teach them the value of
money, and were expected to put down a neat account afterwards of what
they had spent. It was a privilege to which they greatly looked
forward, and it had not yet fallen to Sylvia's share. By dint,
however, of a good deal of persuasion, added to the gift of her
cedarwood pencil box, she induced Sadie Thompson to let her have the
next turn; and, as Miss Kaye made no objection to the exchange, she
found herself included among the favoured few.

Nothing could have been more fortunate. The party consisted of Mercy
Ingledew, Trissie Knowles, from the second class,