"How good of you!" cried Cecily, an almost pathetic eagerness in her voice. "It will be wonderful to hear it near by!" So Marcia opened the case and took out the instrument, tuned it, tucked it lovingly under her chin, and slipped into a rollicking Hungarian dance by Brahms, while her little audience listened spellbound. "Oh, something else, please!" sighed Cecily, blissfully, when it was ended. And Marcia, changing the theme, gave them the lullaby from "Jocelyn," and after that Beethoven's Minuet in G. "Just _one_ more," begged Cecily; "that is--if you're not too tired. The one I--I like so much!" "I know--the 'Träumerei,'" nodded Marcia, and once more laid her bow across the strings. When the last note had died away, they were all suddenly startled by a strange sound just outside the door--a sound that was partly a sob and partly a half-stifled exclamation. Before she quite realized what she was doing, Janet, who happened to be sitting near the door, sprang up and threw it open. [Illustration: "In the sudden light of the open door she stood revealed"] In the hall outside stood Miss Benedict, her hands clasped tensely in front of her. But, strangest of all, her veil was thrown back from her face, and in the sudden light of the open door she stood revealed! In an instant they realized that Cecily had not exaggerated the beauty of her singularly lovely face. She plainly had been listening, captivated, to the music within the room, and something about it must have stirred her strangely. All this they noticed in the fraction of a moment, for, as she saw them, she pulled down her veil with a hasty movement, murmuring something about having heard music and coming to see what it was. But she did not pull it down quickly enough to hide one fact from the gaze of the two girls--that her beautiful gray eyes were brimming with tears! CHAPTER XII MISS BENEDICT SPEAKS It was Miss Minerva who decided that Miss Benedict must be told about the coincidence of the two bracelets. "Certainly, she ought to know!" she declared positively. "There must be _some_ reason why that child has been sent to her, and she ought to be told all the facts concerning her. Who knows but what _she_ may have some explanation of this bracelet mystery! You tell her the very next time you go in. And don't forget to take a jar of that quince marmalade, besides." Aunt Minerva had determined on keeping Cecily well supplied with toothsome dainties, which commodities, she keenly suspected, were scarce in the big house. In fact, the girls had told her that the marketing for that establishment, so far as they had seen, seemed to consist mainly of milk and eggs, rice and prunes! So a day or two after, when they visited Cecily again, they planned to have an interview with her guardian. Marcia was shy about broaching the subject, so the task was left to Janet, who, being anxious to settle the matter immediately, began it as soon as the gate was opened.