The figure of a little, little girl, walking alone among the crowd, yet not of it. A little girl with brown, fluffy curls, turning to gold at the roots, crowned by a big white sailor hat with a black ribbon round it--a little girl dressed in a short black frock with a kilt and a sailor jacket; a little girl so like--ah! how many children had she seen lately so like little Maud! Then the child's blue eyes met hers, and, with a scream, Denys had sprung forward, and Maud--little lost Maud--was in her arms. * * * * * When Denys began once more to realise anything beyond the pressure of her arms round their lost treasure, she became conscious that a little crowd had gathered, and that Pattie was hurriedly explaining what had happened, and there was pity and sympathy in the listening faces around, so that Denys thought wonderingly how kind the world was. "A cab!" she said, and she lifted her head as if she were but just awakened from a long and horrible dream. Oh! how glad she was to have Pattie with her! With Maud still clasped in her arms, she and Pattie got into the cab, and as it rumbled off to the station, the little crowd that had gathered, thinned away and scattered, and Jim Adams and his baby went with it. Jim had been to the Nursery to fetch the two children. It was upon little Maud, running beside him, that he had constantly glanced down. When he stopped to look into the shop window she had not observed it, but had trotted on among the crowd, and he, turning to see what had become of her, had seen the meeting between her and Denys. Thinking simply that the child knew Denys and loved her, as Harry did, he had drawn near to claim her, and had heard Pattie's hurried explanation, and hearing it, he had drawn further and further to the edge of the crowd. But Maud had been too far from him, for any of the passing crowd to suspect that she belonged to him. He saw that in a moment, and he waited calmly in the background till Denys and Pattie and the child had driven away. He understood it all, if no one else did. So that was Jane's vengeance! That was what Jane could do! The sooner he and Jane and the baby were out of Mixham the better! What was there to stay for? He hated the whole place. Perhaps he might begin again somewhere else. He would try, and he would--yes, he would--ask God to help him this time. Tom said that was the only way to keep straight, to ask for God's strength. And Tom and Pattie had made it up that very day, in Jane's own kitchen! CHAPTER XXIV. THE SUN SHINES OUT. As Reggie opened the gate of St. Olave's and glanced up at the familiar ivy-encircled windows, he felt as if a dream that he had often seen before, had come again to him, and that he should only wake to find himself back in the dull little sitting-room in Scotland, trying to find an uneasy rest on the horsehair sofa.