Fani ran back into the house.  He looked at Emma’s door to see whether her boots were still outside, but they had disappeared; so he tapped on the door and said softly:—­

“Come out, Emma, I have something to say to you.”

“What is the matter?  Has Mrs. Stanhope been talking to you?” asked Emma, in a low tone, as she opened the door.

“No,” said Fani, “it’s not that”; and he drew her into the garden, to an arbor in a far-away corner, and there he told her about the eighty marks that were owing for the lost boat.  Emma was greatly excited.

“We can never in the world get together so much as eighty marks!  What can we do?” she cried in a tone of anguish.

“I don’t know.  We can’t ask Mrs. Stanhope for a lot of money like that, after all that we have done to displease her.  Can’t you think of any way?  If I only knew some one to borrow of!  Oh, don’t you know of anybody, Emma?”

Emma had sunk upon a bench, and her eyes looked as if they would start out of her head; she was trying so hard to see some way out of the dilemma.

Fred came running down the walk.  He wanted to know what they were about the night before, but they had no time to answer, for just then the bell rang for breakfast.

The meal was not a merry one.  The children were all embarrassed, and they knew why; they were all conscious that they had not behaved well to their hostess.

Mrs. Stanhope looked at them inquiringly, but said not a word.  Aunt Clarissa nervously buttered large slices of bread as fast as she could; the dish was piled high with them, for no one ate much.

As Mrs. Stanhope left the table, she turned to Fani and said:—­

“Go into the library and wait for me.  I want to speak to you.”

Fani grew white; Emma, red.  “It’s coming now,” they said to themselves.

As Mrs. Stanhope opened the door to leave the room, she was knocked against by a house-maid who was entering in great haste.

“Excuse me, madam,” she said.  “I was in such a hurry.  Something else has happened.  A servant has just come from the Crown Prince to say that the young gentleman for whom Master Oscar ordered a room there has not been at home all night; and this morning the shoemaker told them at the hotel that he was with the young man himself last evening, and saw him running like a crazy fellow down towards the river.”

It was now Oscar’s turn to grow pale.

Aunt Clarissa sent the maid away, saying that she would speak to the hotel servant herself.  She was afraid that Lina would let out the secret of Fred’s untidy room if she were allowed to go on.

Mrs. Stanhope looked very serious.

“I don’t understand all this,” she said, turning to Clarissa; “but if the young stranger has anything to do with Oscar, I will be responsible for his bill at the hotel.”  And she left the room.

Emma instantly rushed to the school-room, seized her portfolio, and began to write as fast as her pen could go.