"Madame M. sent for me to-day. 'Tis the first time since she took to her bed. She did so to give me this strange warning. These be her very words: 'It is rumored that this house may soon be taken possession of by rebels. If so, I wish you to have no communication with any of them, Mistress Alison."
There was an instant's silence. Then Corinne threw her hat on a chair and exclaimed:
"Hurrah! At last we have this mysterious lassie's name! It's Alison! That's the biggest discovery yet. Is there any more?"
"Yes, one thing," answered Margaret, "the strangest of all. It's a later entry and is only three words long—the first word twice underlined:
"He has come!"
CHAPTER VI
A SURPRISE
The girls got together again on the following afternoon, for they could not possibly have stretched their patience to the limit of another day! Margaret had promised to work like a Trojan till they arrived and to have much to read to them. It was with breathless interest that they drew their chairs around her.
"My! I couldn't study a thing, or keep my mind off this a single minute to-day in school!" sighed Jess. "I guess I failed in every blessed recitation."