'I was nearly jumping out after her. I should have said it was herself, if it had not been impossible. Why she was with you at Rockstone, and it was a pouring, dripping day,' said the colonel.

'No, she was not. She begged to spend the day with Constance Hacket, and we picked her up as we came home. Poor child, what has she been doing? I have not looked after her properly.'

'But need she have had anything to do with it?' said Colonel Mohun. 'How should a cheque of Maurice's come into her possession?'

'She did tell me,' said Lady Merrifield,' that her father had left one with her to pay for some German scientific book that might be sent for him.'

'I see, then!' cried Miss Mohun. 'That wretch Flinders must have got into communication with her, and induced her to fill up her father's cheque for him.'

'But why should it be Flinders?' said Lord Rotherwood.

'Jane found out that he is living at Darminster, and has been trying to put me on my guard,' returned Lady Merrifield.

'It is all that fellow Flinders, depend upon it,' said Colonel Mohun.

'He is quite capable of it, and you'll find poor Dolly has nothing to do with it. Quite preposterous. And look here, Lily, let the poor child alone to enjoy herself tonight. Most likely Rotherwood's clerk, or detective, or whatever he may be, will have ferreted out the rights of the matter at Darminster. I sincerely hope he will, and have Flinders in custody, and then you would have upset her and accused her all for nothing.'

'I am glad you think so, Regie,' said Lady Merrifield. 'I am thankful enough to wait, and hope it will be explained without spoiling the children's evening.'

'All right,' said the visitor; 'I only hope I have not spoilt yours.'

'Oh! one learns to throw things off. I shall believe it is all Flinders, and none of it the child's,' said Lady Merrifield, carefully avoiding a glance that could show her any gesture of dissent on the part of her sister, and only looking up for her brother's nod of approval. 'Besides, how foolish it would be to worry myself when I have two such protectors!

It was very good in you, Rotherwood, I only hope we shall take good care of your Fly, and that her mother will be satisfied about her.'

'She knew the little woman and I should have a lark together,' said he.

'The governess was safe out of reach, holiday-making, so I could have her all to myself. Victoria suggested her brother's, and we must go there before we have done, but business and the pantomime by good luck took us to London first. So when I wrote to you from the bank, I also let her know that I was obliged to take the little woman down here first. I couldn't take her to High Court till Louise is available again.'

'So much the better, I'm sure.'

'And what I was going to say is, that Rotherwood has been startlingly munificent and splendid,' said Aunt Jane. 'We shall have a set of new surprises.'

'I don't in the least know what I brought. I only told each of them to put up such a box as they sent out for Christmas concerns. Do precisely what you please with them.'

'Come and see, Lily, for I think there will be enough to reserve a fresh lot of things for Miss Hacket's affair. By-the-by, Regie, did you say it rained at Darminster?'

'Poured all the way down.'

'Well, we had it quite fine.'

'Was it fine here?'

'Yes, certainly,' said Lady Merrifield,' or Primrose would not have gone out. Take care of Rotherwood, Regie. You know his room.'

And the two sisters crossed the hall, where the 'very high tea' was being laid; hearing from the regions above sounds of exquisite glee and merriment, as perfect and almost as inexpressive of anything else as the singing of birds, so that they themselves could not help answering with a laugh, before they vanished into the chamber of mystery.

Indeed, Phyllis's conversation was like a fairy tale. Her brother's illness, which was not enough to damp any one's spirits, had prevented or hindered a grand children's party as the b.u.t.terfly's Ball, where she was to have been the b.u.t.terfly, and Lord Ivinghoe the Gra.s.shopper, and all the children were to appear as one of the characters in Roscoe's pretty poem. Never was anything more delightful to the imagination of the little cousins, and they could not marvel enough at her seeming so little uneasy about anything so charming, and quite ready and eager to throw herself headlong into all their present enjoyments, making wonderful surmises as to the mystery in preparation.

Dolores heard the laughing, and it did not suit with her vaguely uneasy and injured frame of mind; feeling dreadfully lonely too, as she came downstairs, dressed for the evening, but not knowing where to go, for the dining-room was engrossed, the schoolroom was dark and the fire out, the drawing-room occupied by the two gentlemen. She crouched down in one of the big arm-chairs on either side of the hearth in the hall, and began to read by the firelight. Presently Jasper came in from his ride, and began taking off his greatcoat, leggings, and boots, whistling as he did so, then, perceiving the tempting object of a black leg sticking out of the chair, he stole up across the soft carpet, and caught hold of the ankle. He received a vigorous kick in return (which perhaps he expected) but what he did not expect was the black figure that rose up in outraged dignity and indignation. 'For shame! I won't be insulted!'

'Whew! I thought 'twas Val! I beg your pardon.'

'I shall ask my aunt if I am to be insulted.'

'Well, if you choose to take it in that way--A man can't do more than beg pardon! I'm sure I would never have presumed to touch you if I had known it was your Dolorousness.'

And he turned to walk away, just as the babbling ripple of laughter began to flow downstairs, and a whole ma.s.s of little girls intertwined together was descending. 'I always hop,' said a voice new to him, 'except on the great staircase, and mother doesn't like it there. But this is such a jolly stair. Can't you hop?'

Hopping in a threefold embrace on a slippery stair was hardly a safe pastime, and before Jasper had time to utter more than' Holloa there!

take care!' there descended suddenly on him an avalanche of little girls, 'knocking him off his feet, so that all promiscuously rolled down two or three steps together. Fergus and Primrose, who had somehow been holding on behind,' remained upright, but nevertheless screaming. The shrieks of the fallen were, however, laughter. There was a soft rug below, and by the time the gentlemen had rushed out of the dining-room, and the ladies from the curtained recess, giggling below and legs above were chiefly apparent.

'Any one hurt?' was of course Lady Merrifield's cry.

'Oh no, mamma. Only we are so mixed up we can't get up,' called out Mysie.

'Is this arm you or me?' exclaimed Phyllis, following up the joke.

'Come, sort yourselves, ladies and gentlemen,' said Lord Rotherwood.

'What's this, a Fly's wing?'

'No, it's mine,' cried Val, as his hand pulled her out, and the others extricated themselves, still laughing, go that they could hardly stand, and Fly declaring, 'Oh, daddy, daddy, it is such fun! I am so glad we came,' and taking a gratuitous leap into the air.

'Every one to her taste,' said Lady Merrifield, 'I congratulate those to whom a compound tumble-down-stairs is felicity.'

'She has found her congenial element, you see,' said her father, as the elders proceeded upstairs to their toilette.' 'Tis laughing-gas with her to be with other children, and the most laughingest of all are naturally yours, old Lily.'

Meanwhile Jasper, risen on his stocking soles, looked all over at the little figure, dressed old picture fashion, in the simplest white frock with blue sash, and short-cut hair tied back with blue.

'Well, you are a jolly little girl,' he said, 'and a cool customer, too!

What do you mean by knocking a fellow over the first time you see him?'

'And what do you mean by coming like a great--huge--big elephant in our way to stop up the stairs?' demanded Fly, in return.

'Do you mean to insinivate that 'twas I that made you fall?' said Jasper--'I, that was quietly walking up the stairs, when down there came on me a shower--not cats and dogs, but worserer, far worserer! Why, I'm kilt! my nose is flat as a pancake, I shan't recover my beauty all the evening for the great swells that are coming.'

'Jasper, j.a.ps,' called his mother's warning voice, 'you must come up and dress, for tea is going in.'

He obeyed, rushing two steps at a time; but meeting, at the bottom of the attic flight, his sister Gillian, he demanded, 'Gill, what awfully jolly little girl have they got down there?'

'Why, Fly, of course, Lady Phyllis Devereux--'

'No, no, nothing swell, a comical little soul, with no nonsense about her, in a white thing.'

'Well, that's Phyllis. There's no one else there.'

'I say. Gill, 'tis like sunshine and clouds. She and the other, I mean.

Why, I gave a little pull to a foot I saw in the armchair, thinking it belonged to Val, and out breaks my Lady of the Rueful Countenance, vowing she'll complain that I've insulted her; and as to the other, the whole lot of them tumbled over me together on the stairs, and she did nothing but laugh and chaff.'

'I hope she is not a romp,' said the staid Gillian, sagely, as she went downstairs.

But on that score she was soon satisfied. Phyllis Devereux was a thorough little lady, wild and merry as she was, and enchanted to be in the rare fairyland of child companionship. And that indeed she had, Mysie and Valetta, between whose ages she stood, hung to her inseparably, and Jasper was quite transformed from his grim superciliousness into her devoted knight. At tea-time there was a compet.i.tion for the seats next to her, determined by Valetta's taking one side, in right of the birthday, and Jasper the other, because he secured it, and Mysie gave way to him because he was j.a.ps, and she always did. While Dolores laid up a store of moralizings on the adulation paid to the little lady of t.i.tle, and at the same time speculated what concatenation of circ.u.mstances could ever make her Lady Dolores Mohun. On the whole, it would be more likely that her father should gain a peerage by putting down a Fijian rebellion than that it should be discovered that his mother, Lady Emily, had been the true heiress of the marquessate, and even so, an uncomfortable number of people must be disposed of before it could come to him. She had one consolation, however, for Uncle Reginald, always kind to her, was particularly affectionate this evening, as if he would not have that little foolish Fly set up before her.