"Have you asked Monica where she has looked?"
"Certainly not. Irene says she's very sensitive about it, and can't bear to hear it spoken of. Naturally it must have been a most terrible disappointment. I don't wonder she avoids the subject. Please be careful never to mention it to her, or you'll offend her dreadfully, and I shall be sorry I told you."
"I'm sure both Lindsay and Cicely would have too nice feeling to question Monica on such a personal matter," said Mildred Roper.
"Of course we shan't say anything—we wouldn't for worlds," promised the two younger girls.
That Monica should be the heroine of so romantic a story made her doubly interesting in the eyes of Lindsay and Cicely. They were much impressed by Kathleen's account, and retired to the privacy of the summer-house to talk it over together.
"It must be dreadful to be so poor when you know you ought to be so rich!" said Lindsay.
"And so tantalizing, when perhaps the fortune is actually in the house," said Cicely.
"I could never be happy for thinking about it."
"No more could I."
"Look here! Why shouldn't you and I set to work? So long as this treasure is hidden away somewhere, I suppose it's possible to find it."