‘Next Tuesday will be Ange’s birthday, and I wish to give her a pair of silver earrings to match the cross she usually wears. I don’t want to spare any expense, Mrs. Carolus. I should like them to be as good and pretty as herself.’ But there I stopped, remembering that Mr. Lovett would not be home before the morning, and doubtful whether I should have mentioned the earrings to Mrs. Carolus before I had the money to give her to pay for them. ‘I will buy you, then, the handsomest and strongest that I can procure in Rille, Miss Marsh.’ ‘No, Mrs. Carolus! Please do not. I forgot, when I spoke just now, that I shall not have my allowance till after Mr. Lovett returns to-morrow.’ ‘Oh, indeed! He stays over the night, then. But that is no obstacle, Miss Marsh. I will purchase the earrings, and you can repay me at any time.’ ‘Thank you so much! You are very kind,’ I answered; but as the Caroluses were rich people, and I felt certain of paying the money in a day or two, I did not feel the obligation to be a weighty one. But it entailed my having to listen for another half-hour, at least, to the scandal Mrs. Carolus chose to retail me, until, to my infinite relief, I spied Tessie and Ange coming over the hill to put an end to the conversation. [Illustration: [Fleuron]] CHAPTER III. THE SECRET. There was something mysterious about Mr. Lovett’s manner and behaviour after he returned from that visit to Rille, which I could not account for. In the first place he was in the very best and highest of spirits, and the most extravagant dinners appeared upon the table for two days in consequence, whilst he lavished more than his usual affection and caresses upon his daughters and myself. Then, there seemed to be preparations going on for some great event. A peasant woman was hired to clean all the upper part of the house, and for forty-eight hours remained on her knees in an attitude of adoration, scrubbing vigorously at the boards whilst Madame Marmoret stood over her and shrieked that she was a pig and a fool not to work faster. A spare chamber that had possessed no furniture of its own except a bedstead, suddenly became habitable, by reason of articles being secretly abstracted from our rooms, to repair its deficiencies. I know that I missed a chair, a side-table and a water-bottle and tumbler, but no cross-questioning of Madame Marmoret ever elicited the fact that she had had any hand in their removal.