"I have never been out of Devonshire, since I was two years old," said Chris, with a sigh, "though I was born in Edinburgh."
"Were you?" said Jean, with interest. "I wonder if you have any relations still in Scotland?"
"No, none, except my godmother, whom I have never seen. She is a very distant connection of ours—a Mrs. Fergusson. She lives about sixteen miles out of Edinburgh."
"At a house called 'Duncommon'?" exclaimed Jean. "I wonder if it is the same!"
"'Duncommon' is the name of her house," said Barbara gravely. "Do you know her?"
"Yes. How very strange! It must be the same."
Jean began to tell them of her Scotch visit with great animation. There was no difficulty in proving that Chris's godmother and Jean's Mrs. Fergusson were one and the same.
"She has asked me at different intervals to go and stay with her," said Chris, "but I have never been able to do it as yet."
"It seems so strange to come down to Devonshire and find a link at once with the people I have been staying with in Scotland," said Jean presently.
"Not so strange as you imagine. The Douglases and Lorraines both lived in our father's parish in Hampshire. The living was in the Douglas gift, and was given to my father, because they had known him in Edinburgh. You went to Scotland through Mrs. Talbot, Colonel Douglas's sister. The Fergussons were mutual friends. Scotch folk always help each other and hang together."