Carolyn might have framed some retort to this rather uncomplimentary statement; but at the moment her thoughts were fixed upon a puzzling problem. It was surprising to see here at the Corners the car and chauffeur of the rich man who had given her the twenty-dollar bank note for the pale lady. It was likewise astonishing to see here the keen-eyed, dark-complexioned man who had made an unpleasant impression upon her mind the day the pale lady had fainted. To see the two together was a still more amazing fact! Disturbed as little Carolyn May's mind had been on the occasion when she had first seen the saturnine looking man, she remembered now something important about the incident. The man had been talking with the pale lady's neighbour about the Lairds themselves, when Carolyn came down the stairs. The dark man was interested in the Lairds. His presence here, in this handsome automobile, and with the chauffeur of the rich man who had smashed the Lairds' baby go-cart, linked him with the owner of the automobile. This was a mystery--a mystery that piqued Carolyn's curiosity just as had the mystery about the identity of the Lairds and their baby. Had there not been so much going on at the Stagg homestead and in the neighbourhood, the little girl certainly would have conferred with Mamma Cameron about it. CHAPTER XII NEW SCENES "'Flow Gently, Sweet Afton' certainly gave us a sermon out of the common today," declared Uncle Joe on Sunday, after meeting. "And I believe I can see Car'lyn May's fine Italian hand in it." "Why, Uncle Joe!" cried the little girl. "Neither of my hands is Italian. I'm 'Merican, through and through! Besides," she added thoughtfully, "most of the Italians--Dominick, the ice-coal-and-wood man, and Angelo, the fruit man, and the man that goes through our street with the ice-cream-cone cart--most always have got dirty hands. Mine _never_ get as dirty as an Italian hand." But at that, perhaps Uncle Joe was right about the sermon. If the Reverend Afton Driggs was influenced by the prattle of the sunny-hearted Carolyn, he was not the only one so brightened by the little girl's second coming to the Corners. "I declare!" Mrs. Hiram Lardner was heard to say, "that young 'un gets ev'rybody on the broad grin. And she's as good as she can be. Though that ain't sayin' Car'lyn ain't a reg'lar ticket when she wants to be. I don't forget how she encouraged Amos Bartlett to taste our soft-soap that time, thinking it was a hogshead of merlasses." In this brief visit, however, Carolyn May managed to get into no mischief of a serious nature. For one thing, a great deal of her time during the fortnight was given to Baby Carolyn Amanda. Much as she had enjoyed taking care of Baby Laird, her little cousin was a more delightful plaything than the pale lady's baby.