Nothing particular happened to the elder pair as they walked up, taking the shorter and easier way through Crown Hill park, except that Adrian gave it as his assured conviction--first, that Pamela had been on the Beak that morning; secondly, that she had not rescued Reube Ensor. "Addie, how _can_ you!" said Crow, almost tearful, "besides, it’s silly. Hughie heard her get up; and how could she be telling a story about the Beak? Reube was brought up by someone--there he is, badly hurt. I think you carry things too far sometimes." "My dear friend," pronounced Adrian weightily, "I assure you on my honour that it would take every inch of muscle _I’ve_ got to haul that child up the Beak." "But, Addie, Pam is as active as a cat!" "She may be, but she can’t do impossible things. That cliff is fairly precipitous, and the mist makes the whole show as greasy as butter. I tell you, Crow----" "Perhaps she didn’t come up the worst bit," urged Christobel eagerly. "The place we saw her on this morning is the worst bit--well, as bad as any. It’s all bad. What did she tell that lie for, Crow, I ask you? _I_ saw her. You saw her. Rum thing is she must have seen us. She was there the whole time we took getting from opposite the lighthouse to the north of the Beak. Just crawling up and down, and moving along. Why, the thing was patent. It was blazing. I swear I don’t understand what Pamela is up to." Christobel was on the point of suggesting a lame excuse; because she certainly had seen Pamela, when they became aware of a lady wandering over the grass in the wake of a King Charles spaniel whose nose was buttoned up so high that it seemed miraculous he could live upside down, as it were. He was attached to a long lead, and as he ran round tree trunks the lady became a fixture at unexpected moments, because she never let go whatever happened. She did not see the Romillys because she was as short-sighted as the spaniel. Christobel hurried towards her, with a cry of "Good morning, Auntie A.," unwound the dog and the lady, and started them again on a clear space. "My dear children," said Auntie A., beaming, "how nice to see you both, and looking so well too, but surely it is not summer holidays yet--what? Ah, I should have remembered. I saw you last week I believe, dear Adrian, before Mollie went. I miss her so much, especially in the matter of Charles and his exercise--I do assure you he sets me at defiance. Indeed he does. The spirit of the age, is it not? So sad! Excuse me, dear Christobel, but is my veil on my hat, I believe Dickens put it there when I came out, I feel certain she must have done so, yet I cannot find it." "It is under your chin, Auntie A.," said Crow gently and unsmiling, "I expect it got crooked and you pulled it down. Shall I undo it, and start again?"