"That is your home, ain't it?" asked Jem, pointing.
"Yes; how did you know?"
"I heard you lived there. May I come up to the door with you?"
Meg assented. She was rather surprised, but not sorry that he wished it.
When, however, he got to the door, he bade her an abrupt good-bye, and hastened back along the path.
She saw his form disappear in the direction of the stables, and then she opened the door and told her mother all about it.
"He's been working at the Hall for this month, mother; but I've never spoken to him before."
Mrs. Archer went to the door and looked anxiously down the lane, as if with her old eyes she could see the lost brooch herself.
"Dear, dear," she said, "to think I could have let you take it to be mended, and not have gone myself!"
Poor Meg stood beside her in silence. She wished it too; but how could she know she would lose it?