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the world. There must be some reason for this. I was sure that no child would be eager to proclaim herself the enemy of strangers without some cause.
    I determined to discover the reason for Alvean’s demeanour. I determined to make her a happy, normal child.
    It was light before sleep came; the coming of day comforted me because I was afraid of the darkness in this house. It was childish, but it was true.
    I had breakfast in the schoolroom with Alvean, who told me, with pride, that when her father was at home she had breakfast with him.
    Later we settled to work, and I discovered that she was an intelligent child; she had read more than most children of her age and her eyes would light up with interest in her lessons almost in spite of her determination to preserve a lack of harmony between us. My spirits began to rise and I felt that I would in time make a success of this job.
    Luncheon consisted of boiled fish and rice pudding, and afterwards when Alvean volunteered to take me for a walk, I felt I was getting on better with her.
    There were woods on the estate, and she said she wished to show them to me. I was delighted that she should do so and gladly I followed her through the trees.
    ” Look,” she cried, picking a crimson flower and holding it out to me.
    ” Do you know what this is?”
     
    z ” It’s betony, I believe.”
    She nodded. ” You should pick some and keep it in your room, Miss. It keeps evil away.”
    I laughed. ” That’s an old superstition. Why should I want to keep evil away?”
    ” Bverybody should. They grow this in graveyards. It’s because people are buried there. It’s grown there because people are afraid of the dead.”
    ” It’s foolish to be afraid. Dead people can hurt no one.”
    She was placing the flower in the buttonhole of my coat. I was rather touched. Her face looked gentle as she fixed it and I had a notion that she felt a sudden protective feeling towards me.
    ” Thank you, Alvean,” I said gently.
    She looked at me and all the softness vanished from her face. It was defiant and full of mischief.
    ” You can’t catch me,” she cried; and oS she ran.
    I did not attempt to do so. I called: ” Alvean, come here.” But she disappeared through the trees and I heard her mocking laugher in the distance.
    I dedded to return to the house, but the wood was thick, and I was not sure of my direction. I walked back a little way but it seemed to me that it was not the direction from which we had come. A panic seized me, but I told myself this was absurd. It was a sunny afternoon and I could not be half an hour’s walk from the house. Moreover, I did not believe that the wood could be very extensive.
    I was not going to give Alvean the satisfaction of having brought me to the wood to lose me. So I walked purposefully through the trees;
    but as I walked they grew thicker and I knew that we had not come this way. My anger against Alvean was rising when I heard the crackle of leaves as though I were being followed. I was sure the child was somewhere near, mocking me.
    Then I heard singing; it was a strange voice, slightly off key, and the fact that the song was one of those which were being sung in drawing rooms all over the country did nothing to reassure me.
     
    n “Alice, where art thou? One year back this even And thou wert by my side, Vowing to love me, Alice, what e’er may betide”
    ” Who is there?” I called.
    There was no answer, but in the distance I caught a glimpse of a child with lint-white hair, and I knew that it was only little Gilly who had stared at me from the hydrangea bushes by the lodge gates.
    I walked swiftly on and after a while the trees grew less dense and through them I saw the road. I came out into this and realised that I was on the slope which led up to the plateau and the lodge gates.
    Mrs. Soady was sitting at the door of the lodge as she had been when I arrived, her knitting in her hands.
    ” Why, Miss,” she called. ” So you’ve been