"Some girl," admitted Roger. "But she can't hold a candle to Mr. Max.
He's a corker."
"He is nice," Frances agreed. "But show me your arithmetic. And would you like me to sit in the room? Perhaps Mr. Fisher won't be so fierce if I am there."
"I would not," was her brother's concise reply. "He isn't fierce either; he's merely flappy. I tell you he is a fish. He looks exactly like one of those flatfish we catch down in Maine. Eyes both on one side."
Nothing more unlike the tall, angular Scotch tutor could possibly have been mentioned, but Fran suppressed a laugh as she inspected Roger's problems in mathematics.
"Me doing arithmetic!" he groaned. "And Win having the time of his life at the Manor!"
If not exactly experiencing such bliss, Win was thoroughly enjoying himself. After luncheon in the charming old Manor dining-room with a cheerful fire dispelling all gloom caused by the rain on the windows, the three adjourned to Colonel Lisle's study, where Win placed upon the table his discovery. The Colonel read it with great interest.
"Well, that is a valuable document, Win," he admitted. "It is evidently a page from a letter that Richard Lisle, fourth, wrote to some one and never sent. I am the ninth Richard, so you see how far back that was. Of course it refers to the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II of England. It is a curious fact in the history of the Channel Islands that Guernsey sided with the Parliament in its dispute with the king, while Jersey remained royalist to the core. I am under great obligations to you for discovering this paper, for it proves beyond doubt the legend that I have always wished to see substantiated, that Prince Charles came to Laurel Manor."
"Don't you make out, Daddy, that they gave him other clothes and took him to the castle?" asked his daughter.
"Without doubt. Orgueil, or possibly Castle Elizabeth. I believe that the consensus of opinion now favors Elizabeth as having been the prince's refuge."
"What do you make of the rest of it, sir?" asked Win, who was still beaming with happiness over the Colonel's appreciation. "It says in so many words that they put something in a chest and hid it until the trouble was over."