“Wait, my dear, till you’re sure,” Tracy answered. “I’ll go bail she isn’t betraying anybody; but we must see for ourselves.” “Very well,” April answered, “and now we must go away from here. She is probably watching us from her window, and so long as we are in sight she won’t move. We must give her a chance to get away unobserved—as she will think. You’d better go off to the stables. I’ll run up to my room and let you know when she has gone.” Tracy nodded and went off. He didn’t like the business, but it had to be gone through with. “I wish April could have found some one else to help her,” he murmured, as he turned the corner of the house. “It’s a mean game, this, interfering with a love affair. But wars no respecter of conventions. And she’ll hate me for it, bad luck to it!” CHAPTER XXIV FACE TO FACE Meanwhile, Dorothea having returned from a successful trip to the bank was making for her room when she encountered a disgruntled Harriot. “Oh, Dee!” she cried, “that old governess has come back again and she says I have to work harder than ever to make up what I’ve lost while she was away. That means I shan’t have any fun this afternoon.” “What were you going to do?” Dorothea asked, not having heard of any particular plans. “I don’t know,” Harriot confessed, “but it would have been something very nice, I’m sure. We should have thought of it, but now I’ve just got to study, and you’ll go off and have a lovely time by yourself.” That is exactly what Dorothea planned to do the moment she learned she would be free, but she did not tell Harriot so. “It’s too bad,” she murmured sympathetically, “but there will be other days, you know.” “Yes, and they’ll be rainy!” Harriot replied complainingly and with justification, for the weather had been anything but dry, though there had been a bright sun for the last week. “But really it’s very warm to-day,” Dorothea consoled her. “You’ll be cooler in the house than outdoors. I’m so hot that I’m going upstairs to put on a cooler dress.” This was all true enough, and her walk to the village had brought a bright flush to her cheeks, but she had another motive in going upstairs. She found Lucy ready to help her and her first words to the girl showed her intention. “Pull down the curtain, Lucy,” she said, “there’s such a glare.” The girl did as she was ordered, but not without a grumbling protest. “Does you-all want all the shades down, Miss Dee?” she asked. “It’s monstrous unlucky. Looks lak some one was dade.” “No, just the end one will do,” Dorothea answered. “I’ve been walking in the sun and I think a half-light will be pleasanter, don’t you?”