"The telephone will be a great convenience," Mrs. Macleod remarked from the corner of the sofa, looking up from her knitting; "it will save so many trips to the village in weather like this." "Is it a long distance one, Gordon?" said Jamie who was lolling on the other end. "Yes; I thought we might as well connect with almost anywhere. Our household is rather cosmopolitan. Does this suit you?" "Suits me to a dot. I can talk with my 'best girl', as they call her in the States, when she is on the wing--as she is now." "Oh, ho, Boy! Has it come to this so soon?" The Doctor sighed audibly, causing us to laugh. "Jamie's 'best girl' changes with the season and sometimes the temperature, Doctor," said Mrs. Macleod, smiling at some remembrance. "Do you recall a little girl who with her mother had lodgings at Duncairn House, just opposite ours in Crieff?" The Doctor nodded. "Yes, and how Jamie Macleod enticed her away one summer afternoon to the meadows and banks of the Earn just below the garden gate, and the hue and cry that was raised when the two failed to make their appearance at supper time? Somebody--I won't say who--went to bed without porridge that night. What was her name, Boy?" I saw, we all saw, just the least hesitation on Jamie's part to answer with his usual assurance. We saw, also, the touch of red on his high cheek bones deepen a little. "Bess--Bess Stanley." "There is a Miss Stanley who visited at the new manor last summer--any relation, do you know?" asked Mr. Ewart. "Same," Jamie answered concisely, meanwhile puffing vigorously at his pipe. "The plot thickens, Mrs. Macleod," said the Doctor dubiously. "Is she tall and slender and fair, Jamie?" I put what I considered an opportune question; I knew it would both surprise and irritate him as well as rouse his curiosity of which he has an abundance. I really spoke at a venture because the name recalled to me the two girls in the sleeping-car and their destination: Richelieu-en-Bas. He turned to me with irony in his look. "She is all you say. May I make so bold as to enquire of you whether you speak from knowledge, or if you simply made a good guess?" "From knowledge--first hand, of course," I said with assurance. He sat up then, eyeing me defiantly, much to the others' amusement. "Perhaps you can give me further information about the young lady--all will be gratefully received." "No, nothing--except that I believe it was she through whom you obtained Cale, was n't it?" I heard Cale chuckle.