en't
seen Jessie for two long hours."

"Don't tell me that," said Jessie, the unconvincible. "You might try that
with some one else, but not with me; I know you too well."

"But suppose I don't want to try it with any one else," Phil objected,
managing to fall behind the rest and lowering his voice to a whisper.
"Suppose I wasn't fooling; suppose I really meant what I said?"

Jessie turned quickly and said, in a tone in which laughter and despair
were equally blended, "Oh, Phil, you're not going to begin anything like
that--please----"

"Why not?" said Phil, doggedly. "If you don't mind, I think I shall."

Jessie regarded Phil's serious face out of the corner of her eye and gave
a little hysterical gurgle.

"It's no use," she thought, as Phil placed a chair for her with more than
usual care; "it must be in the air. When Lucy knows----"

CHAPTER XXI

THE OLD CHATEAU

Lucile had been awake for some time. She lay with both hands beneath her
curly head, staring straight up at the ceiling and thinking, thinking,
very hard.

They were on the outskirts of Paris. Her father had heard from the
Applegates of this wonderful little inn, where one might be as
comfortable as in one's own home. This had appealed strongly to them all,
for the girls were eager for a sight of the country, especially since the
gratifying of their desire would not entail the loss of city delights in
the least--a machine could whirl them into the heart of Paris in half an
hour.

Such was the pleasant trend of Lucile's thoughts as she turned her eyes
toward the bright patch of window and beheld a world bathed in golden
sunshine. "How pretty it all was!" she mused. "Take the clouds, for
instance. How feathery and soft and fleecy and silvery-lined they looked,
floating on that vast sea of brilliant turquoise; and somewhere,
somewhere there was a bird singing, more exquisitely, she was sure, than
bird had ever sung before. Oh, if she could only get one little peek at
him!" With this in view, she stole silently from the bed and over to the
window.

"Time to get up?" yawned a sleepy voice from the bed.

"Oh, he's stopped!" wailed Lucile. "He stopped the minute you began to
talk. Oh, Jessie, why did you have to wake up just then?"

Jessie gazed at her friend as at one gone suddenly and violently insane.
"If it will do you any good, I will go to sleep again," said she, with
much dignity. "But I should like to know what or whom it was I sto