Reassured on this head, Mr Musgrave looked relieved. "I'm glad to know that," he said. "Quite possibly Diogenes will be received back into the family later on, when time has softened Mrs Chadwick's chagrin." "In the meanwhile," Walter Errol said, laughing, "I foresee your attachment for the--dog having grown to the extent of refusing to part with him." John Musgrave was by nature literal, nor did he on this occasion depart from his habit of interpreting his friend's speech to the letter rather than the spirit. "My affection for Diogenes," he returned, "will be tempered always with anxiety. And in any case the motive which led to my adoption of him will qualify any distress I may feel in parting with him. It will give me immense pleasure to restore her pet to Miss Annersley." "Yes," agreed the vicar decidedly, "Miss Annersley, of course, must have Diogenes back." He returned to the vicarage for breakfast in a highly amused frame of mind, but, having been sworn by John Musgrave to secrecy, was denied the pleasure of relating this amazing tale of Mr Musgrave's benevolence for the benefit of his wife. The story of Diogenes must for the present remain a secret. But as a secret shared by an increasing number of persons it stood in considerable danger of ultimate disclosure. The risk of discovery in the quarter in which discovery was most to be avoided was minimised by the departure, of the Chadwicks for the Continent a month earlier than had been intended. The responsibility for hastening the departure rested with Mr Chadwick, who, worried with his wife's constant bewailing her pet's untimely end, and equally harassed by his niece's uncomplaining but very obvious regret for her faithful four-footed companion, decided that change of scene might help them to forget these small troubles which depressed the atmosphere of his hitherto genial home. Peggy, from motives quite apart from the distress she successfully feigned, encouraged him in this belief, and once away from Moresby brightened so suddenly and became so surprisingly cheerful that her uncle was puzzled to understand why his wife did not show a corresponding gaiety, but continued to bemoan her loss as she had done at home.