His: "Yes, my dear?

' was quite unsurprised.

"Sarre, my little dancing lady I found her.

You did it, didn't you?

You never got her mended?

' "Yes, I did.

There's an old instrument maker who sees to my instruments and is an

expert in repairing the irreparable.

He spent the day on her.

' She blinked back tears.

"Oh, Sarre, how can I ever thank you?

You don't know.

after my carelessness.

that you should have bothered.

' He was leaning against a tallboy, his hands in his pockets, staring at her.

He said deliberately: "You can show it to the children now.

' She said a little breathlessly: "Yes, of course they'll love it.

' She edged towards the door.

"Well, thank you again, Sarre.

I really did mind about her being broken.

' He left the tallboy and came towards her.

"Yes, I know that.

' He took the musical box from her and set it down.

"T find it quite encouraging.

' He swept her close and kissed her hard, put the toy back into her hand, and opened the door.

"Sleep well," he said.

Alethea got ready for bed, wondering what he had meant.

Why should he find it encouraging that she had minded?

And he had kissed her.

he'd kissed her before, of course, but this time it hadn't been a cool

peck on one cheek.

Perhaps he had felt sorry for her.

She wound the musical box and sat listening to its tinkling tune; she

would have to play it for the children in the morning and not betray

her feelings for one second, but there was no one to watch her now, no

blue van Diederijk eyes staring at her.

She played the tune again, snivelling like a small girl.

But there was no sign of that at breakfast the next morning.

She set her treasure on the table arid without looking too closely at the children's surprised faces, wound it up, talking about it all the time, and when it had finished its tune, she enquired after Neptune and Nero, reminded the children that it was their swimming lesson that morning, observed that it looked like rain and somehow contrived not to offer a cheek for Sarre's duty kiss.

After the way he had kissed her last night, she wouldn't be able to bear it.

She went about her ch.o.r.es presently, having her daily chat with Mrs

McCrea, peering into the linen cupboards, paying a visit to Nanny, who received her with tight-lipped courtesy and stood by while she played with the kitten and collected Nero for his walk with Rough, and that done, she went along to the small room at the back of the house where she had her daily Dutch lessons now.

It was a dear little room; rather cluttered, because everyone used it

and it had a lovely view of the garden.

Alethea spent an hour struggling with the simple sentences which would help her most, at least to begin with, and then thankfully bade her teacher goodbye and wandered into the drawing room.

It was then that she realised that she hadn't seen Al all the

morning.

Mrs McCrea, busy with the making of a Dun dee cake, looked at her reproachfully.

"You only had to pull the bell rope, ma'am," she pointed out, 'there's no call for you to come all this way.

Is it something you want?

' "Only to ask about Al--he doesn't seem to be here.

he's not ill?

' There was a little pause.

"He's got his day off, ma'am.

Is there anything Nel can do in his stead?

' Alethea picked up a handful of almonds and munched them.

"Oh, no, thank you.

' "It must have slipped his mind to tell you," observed Mrs McCrea comfortably.

It was at lunchtime that the children told her that they couldn't find Neptune.

They looked at her so accusingly that she guessed at once that they supposed that she had hidden him in revenge for smashing the musical box.

She said with deliberate calm: "No, I haven't taken him; he was safe in the playroom when I was there this morning and I haven't been there since.

Of course I know that you smashed the musical box; I expect you had some reason for doing it, but I don't intend to tell anyone, nor do I intend to take revenge--certainly not at the expense of a kitten.

' She went on bracingly: "Now, who saw him last?

Was he alone for any length of time?

Did anyone leave the door open?

' "Nanny said he was there asleep--she had to go down to the kitchen for something and when she got back she can't remember if he was there or not.

' "Then probably he's in a cupboard.

' Alethea glanced at the clock.

"Look, if we hurry over lunch, we'll have half an hour before you have to go back to school; we'll search the house, room by room--perhaps Nanny will help us.