Miss Berengaria was as usual in the garden looking after the well-being of some white chrysanthemums. She raised her head when she saw her visitors, and a look of annoyance crossed her face when she saw Mr. Beryl. Notwithstanding Durham's advice, she found it difficult to keep her natural dislike of the young man in abeyance, and but for the sake of Alice she would have refused to let him enter the Bower. As it was, and with great diplomacy--so great that it deceived even the astute Beryl--she asked him to come into the house. Luckily Alice was out of the way, having gone to pay a visit. But she was expected back momentarily, and Miss Berengaria wished to get rid of Julius before the girl returned. She might be able to conceal her real feelings, but Alice being so young and impulsive might show her dislike too plainly and put Beryl on his guard. "Who is this you have here?" asked Miss Plantagenet, putting on her spectacles and surveying Jerry with admiration. "What a pretty lad!" "He is a lad I wish you to help," said Beryl, blandly. "Last time we met, Miss Plantagenet, you mentioned that you wanted a page." "Not exactly a page," said the old dame, rubbing her nose, a sure sign she was perplexed. "Merely a boy to see after the fowls, and to wait about the house when necessary." "I love fowls," said Jerry sweetly, and looking as innocent as a babe, "and dogs and things like that." "You seem a nice lad. Who is he, Mr. Beryl?" "A poor boy who sold matches in London." "But I didn't always," piped Jerry, shifting from one leg to the other in feigned embarrassment, and playing his part perfectly. "I lived with grandmother at Cove Castle." "That's Lord Conniston's place," said Miss Berengaria, more perplexed than ever. "What were you doing there?" "I lived with grandmother. My name is Jerry Moon." "Oh! And how did you come to be selling matches?" "His lordship got me a situation at a tobacconist's," said the child-like Moon, "and then he got me turned off." "Why? That is not like Lord Conniston." "You had better not ask the reason," interposed Julius; "it is not to Lord Conniston's credit." "But I must know the reason," said the old dame, sharply, "if you want me to take the lad into my service." Jerry in answer to a look of Beryl's began to weep ostentatiously. "I saw his lordship dressed as a soldier," he snuffled, "and I told Mr. Beryl. His lordship was so angry that he got me turned off, saying I was ungrateful." "You should always hold your tongue," said Miss Berengaria, angrily. "You had no right to tell what Lord Conniston wished kept secret. It was only a freak on his part. He left the army at my request." "At your request?" said Julius, looking at her directly. Forearmed as she was, Miss Berengaria, with the consciousness of Bernard's secret, flushed through her withered skin. However, she did not lower her eyes but turned the conversation defiantly. "Let us keep to the matter in hand. Do you want to enter my service?"