’Well, perhaps a better plan would be to write to Walter to come down and see her,’ said Gladys thoughtfully.  ’Yes, I shall just do that.  How pleased he will be to see her looking so well!  Perhaps he will be able to persuade her to go to housekeeping with him now, and in that case, Teen, you will stay on here.  Miss Peck says she can’t do without you anyhow, you are such an invaluable help with sewing and all sorts of things; perhaps we could make a permanent arrangement, at least which will last till I get my scheme for the Girls’ Club all arranged.  I must say it does not progress very fast,’ she added, with a sigh.  ’We always do so much less than we expect and intend, and will, I suppose, fall short to the very end.  If you like to stay here, Teen, as sewing maid or anything else to Miss Peck, it will make me very happy.’

She regarded the little seamstress with a lovely kindness in her look, and what could poor Teen do, but burst into happy tears, having no words wherein to express a tithe of what she felt.

No further allusion was made that night to the question of the girls leaving, and all retired to rest as usual in the house of Bourhill.  In the night, however, just when the faint streaks of the summer dawn were visible in the summer sky, Liz Hepburn rose very softly from the side of the sleeping Teen, and, gathering her things together in an untidy bundle, stole out of the room and down-stairs.

The Scotch terrier, asleep on his mat at the foot of the stair, only looked up sleepily and wagged his tail as she stepped over him and stole softly through the hall.  The well-oiled bolts slipped back noiselessly, and she ran out down the steps, leaving the door wide to the wall.

And so they found it at six o’clock in the morning, just when Liz was stepping into the first train at a wayside station many miles from Bourhill.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XL.

THE MATRONS ADVISE.

‘I think we had better go down and see what Gladys is about,’ said Mrs. Fordyce at the breakfast-table.  ’Could you go down with me this afternoon, Tom?’

‘I daresay I could,’ replied the lawyer.  ’Surely we haven’t heard anything about her for a long time?’

‘I should just think we hadn’t,’ said Mina, with energy.  ’Perhaps by this time she has gone off with somebody.  We’ve shamefully neglected her.’

‘George hasn’t been down either, Julia told me yesterday,’ said Mrs. Fordyce thoughtfully.  ’There must have been a quarrel, girls.  Did Gladys say anything more before she went away that day?’

’Nothing; but they are both so proud, neither will give in first.  I certainly don’t think, mother, that Gladys’s feelings are very seriously involved.  She takes the whole thing very calmly.’

‘George should not be too high and mighty at this early stage, my dear,’ said Mrs. Fordyce.  ’He will find that Gladys has a mind of her own, and will not be dictated to.  All the same,’ she added, with a faint sigh, ’I admit that he was right to find fault with her having those girls at Bourhill.  Tom dear, I really think it is your duty, as guardian, to interfere.’