n order to
ask her what alabaster was exactly. Mrs. Caldwell flushed indignantly
at the story. "If Dr. Hardy speaks in that way of his patients to his
family, he won't succeed in his profession," she declared. "A man who
talks about his patients may be a clever doctor, but he's sure not to
be a nice man--not high-minded, you know--and certainly not a wise
one. Remember that, Beth, and take my advice: don't have anything to
do with a 'talking doctor'"--a recommendation which Beth remembered
afterwards, but only to note the futility of warnings.

Matters became very complicated in the story as it proceeded. It was
all due to some Spanish imbroglio, Beth said. Hector ran extraordinary
risks, and she was not too safe herself if things went wrong. There
were implicating documents, and emissaries of the Jesuits were on the
look-out.

One day, Charlotte's mother being away from home, Beth asked her
mysteriously if she could conceal some one in her room at night
unknown to her father.

"Easily," Charlotte answered. "He never comes up to my room."

"Then you must come and ask mamma to let me spend the day and night
with you to-morrow," Beth said. "I shall have business which will keep
me away all day, but I shall return at dusk, and then you must smuggle
me up to your room. We shall be obliged to sit up all night. I don't
know what is going to happen. Are the servants safe? If I should be
betrayed----"

"Safe not to tell you are there," said Charlotte, "and that is all
they will know. They won't tell on me. I never tell on them."

The next morning early, Charlotte arrived in Orchard Street with a
face full of grave importance, and obtained Mrs. Caldwell's consent to
take Beth back with her; but instead of having to go home to spend the
day alone waiting for Beth, as she had expected, she was sent out some
distance along the cliffs to a high hill, which she climbed by Beth's
direction. She was to hide herself among the fir-trees at the top, and
watch for a solitary rider on a big brown horse, who would pass on the
road below between noon and sunset, if all went well, going towards
the headland.

"_I_ shall be that rider," Beth said solemnly. "And the moment you see
me, take this blue missive, and place it on the Flat Rock, with a
stone on it to keep it from blowing away; then go home. If I do not
appear before sunset, here is a red missive to place on the Flat Rock
instead of the blue one, which must then be destroyed by