Page:Biggers and Ritchie - Inside the Lines.djvu/217

 transplanted stock, prompted a mischievous question:

"Then you won't be leaving somebody behind when you sail—somebody who seemed awfully nice and—foreigny and all that? All our American girls find the moonlight over on this side infectious. Witness me—a 'finishing trip' abroad after school days—and see where I've finished—on a Rock!" Lady Crandall bubbled laughter. A shrewd downward sweep of her eye was just in time to catch a flush mounting to Jane's cheeks.

"Well, a Mysterious Stranger has crossed my path," Jane admitted. "He was very nice, but mysterious."

"Oh!" A delighted gurgle from the older woman. "Tell me all about it—a secret for these ancient walls to hear."

Jane was about to reply when second thought checked her tongue. Before her flashed that strange meeting with Captain Woodhouse the night before—his denial of their former meeting, followed by his curious insistence on her keeping faith with him by not revealing the fact of their acquaintance. She had promised—why she had promised she