y to be wise," she quoted to herself,
and what was the good of knowing that her life was so dull if she dared
not do anything to make it less so. Since Miss Bidwell's departure she
had fallen into the habit of talking aloud to herself, for she found that
during her many long, lonely hours the sound even of her own voice made
some companionship for her, and her conversations with Eleanor Humphreys
were now no longer carried on in the recesses of her mind but out loud.

It was a dangerous habit, as she was to discover ere long, especially as
Eleanor had of late, since in fact the seeds of discontent had been sown
in Margaret's mind, not stopped at describing her gaieties to her friend,
but tried to persuade her to break bounds and to come and join in the
revels.

And that was what had brought Margaret into such serious trouble with her
grandfather.

CHAPTER III

MARGARET STARTS ON A JOURNEY

The immediate result of the conversation that Mr. Anstruther had
overheard between his granddaughter and her imaginary friend was a visit
from the doctor to Margaret. Mr. Anstruther was sure that Margaret would
never have dreamed of rebelling against him even in her thoughts had she
not been ill, and within an hour from the time he had dispatched his
granddaughter in disgrace to the house, Mr. Anstruther followed her there
accompanied by Dr. Knowles. Dr. Knowles it was whose conversation with
the clergyman Margaret had in her turn overheard from behind the hedge,
and if he had pitied Margaret before, his pity increased tenfold, when by
a series of skilfully put questions he had drawn from her a description
of her daily life. But he smiled reassuringly at her as he bade her
good-bye, and promised to send her a prescription that he knew she would
like.

But though, when she came to hear of it, Margaret approved this
prescription, her grandfather strongly objected to it when it was
first mooted to him. For it was change of air that the doctor
prescribed--change of air immediate and complete.

"If you could fill this house with young people, and let her lead a gay,
lively life here, I don't say that it might not do her as much good as a
change of climate, but," perceiving that Mr. Anstruther's face was set
like a flint at a mere suggestion of such a thing, "a change would be
better still. She has been too long in this flat, low-lying district;
Brighton or Eastbourne, or any part of the Sussex Downs, would be of
immense be