"What do you want to know about Jim?" said her father, in some irritation. He had dreaded this inquiry, but had not thought it would come from little Shallow-pates, as he called his youngest daughter. However, he must account for Jim's absence in some sort of fashion. "You won't see Jim for two or three days," he said. "Not for two or three days," said Penelope, and her small, round childish face looked almost haggard. "You mean that he won't be home before Saturday?" "Bless you, no; he'll certainly be away till then. Now that's all about it. Why, good gracious, child; I didn't know you cared so much for him!" She turned away to choke down the lump in her throat. The other girls came in but they did not even trouble to inquire for their brother. Mr Carter, however, thought it best to make his communication. "Jim has gone to stay with one of his schoolfellows unexpectedly; a letter came for him last night. I thought it best he should accept. It is one of the Holroyds. Very respectable people the Holroyds are. Well, girls, what are you staring at?" "I didn't know we were staring," said Clara. "I'm very glad Jim has gone. But what a violent hurry he went off in." "Well, that's his affair, I suppose. Boys like your brother don't want the grass to grow under their feet. Anyhow, he's off, and he won't be back,"--Pen raised her face--"for a week or ten days; so you'll have to do without him at the seaside for a few days." Pen slowly left the room. "I don't believe he has gone to the Holroyds'," she said. She mounted the stairs and entered her brother's bedroom. She opened the drawers and peeped into his wardrobe. "He has not taken his best clothes," she thought, "and if the Holroyds are swells, he'd want them. He hasn't gone to the Holroyds! Whatever is the matter?" Then she sat down very moodily on a chair in the centre of the room. "He promised he'd help me, and he hasn't. He has forgotten all about it, and he has gone away, and it's not to the Holroyds. He won't be back before Saturday, and whatever, whatever am I to do?" Penelope was not left long to her own meditations. She was called downstairs by Clara, who gave the little girl several commissions to do for her. "You have got to drive into Newcastle; the pony trap will be at the door in a quarter of an hour's time. You have got to get all these things at Johnson's, and then you are to go to Taylor's and ask them for my new things, and be sure you see that they have selected the right shade of blue for my ties. Then do--" Here Clay thrust a long list of commissions into her sister's hand. "All right," said Penelope. "Be home as quick as ever you can; we are expecting some people here this afternoon, the Mauleverers and the Chelmsfords. It seems to me that we are getting to know all the county set. Go, the very last thing, to Theodor's and get the ices and the cakes that I ordered. Now, do look sharp, Pen. You have no time to lose."