"_Sidney!_" cried Trude, scarlet-faced. Dugald Allan laughed. "Sidney, go in and see Lav. He's been calling for you and Miss Letty says you can see him for five minutes if you won't let him do any of the talking. I want to tell your sister a few things about you that I think she ought to know." He caught Trude's arm in a masterful way, wheeled her about and led her down the lane. Sidney stared after them; even the excitement of the diamonds faded to nothing by the side of this amazing revelation. Mr. Dugald had known Trude all the time! He was the man who had made Trude so unhappy! He had let her talk of Trude and had never betrayed by so much as a blush their acquaintance! Sidney had no choice but to go on alone to the cottage. Her elation and her delight at seeing Lavender were shadowed by a growing apprehension. Mr. Dugald had promised to forget what she had told him of Trude's broken heart, but perhaps he hadn't! And he might tell Trude that he knew! [Illustration: SHE SPIED APPROACHING FIGURES--TRUDE AND MR. DUGALD, WALKING SLOWLY] CHAPTER XXIV WHAT THE DAY HELD "Dear Dorothea, again I stand at the crossroads, a saddened soul, and wiser--" But Sidney could get no further than that. There was so much to tell Dorothea that she did not know how to begin. For those terrible hours on the _Arabella_ she had no words; she shrank from trying to depict Lavender's splendid courage for his white face as she had seen it in the precious five minutes still haunted her. Even the diamonds lost their lustre beside Trude's ultimatum that they must go home. Go home so ingloriously! It was two hours since Dugald had led Trude away down the lane and Sidney's apprehension had mounted as the time had passed. She was feeling very young and very forgotten; Miss Letty who had remained at the cottage to "be handy" and to answer the stream of inquiries that came to the door, had warned her to "keep quiet" as there had been enough excitement for one day and she had been too rebuffed to even confide to Miss Letty that Mr. Dugald was someone her sister had known a few years before and that they had gone away without her. Miss Letty was baking vigorously, her great hands moving deftly among the cupboards, her straight back eloquently expressive of her mood. "I guess folks'll have a different opinion of Lavender Green _now_," she muttered and as Sidney was the only person within hearing she accepted the remark as addressed to her and agreed. Miss Letty went on, shaking the flour-sifter as though she wished she were shaking someone in particular: "I guess folks like that Mrs. Allan will have a different opinion of Cape Cod. She came here and asked to see Lavender and I took her in and waited outside the door--" "Oh, what did she say?" begged Sidney.