“Dear Sir,” the letter began, primly enough, “The Unfortunate Being whom you befriended last night, is in Desperate Case, and begs that you will come to the little orchard next to the road at eight o’clock punctually, because it is vital that I should have Private Speech with you. Do not fail. Your obliged servant,
“Lydia Daubenay.”
It was plain that Miss Daubenay had written this missive in considerable agitation. Greatly intrigued, Pen enquired the way to Major Daubenay’s house of a baker’s boy, and set off down the dusty road.
By the time she had reached the appointed rendezvous it was half-past eight, and Miss Daubenay was pacing up and down impatiently. A thick, high hedge shut the orchard off from sight of the house, and a low wall enclosed it from the road. Pen climbed on to this without much difficulty, and was greeted by an instant accusation: “Oh, you are so late! I have been waiting ages!”
“Well, I am sorry, but I came as soon as I had read your letter,” said Pen, jumping down into the orchard. “Why do you wish to see me?”
Miss Daubenay wrung her hands, and uttered in tense accents: “Everything has gone awry. I am quite distracted! I don’t know what to do!”
Pen betrayed no particular solicitude at this moving speech, but critically looked Miss Daubenay over.
She was a pretty child, about the same age as Pen herself, but shorter, and much plumper. She had a profusion of nut-brown ringlets, a pair of fawn-like brown eyes, and a soft rosebud of a mouth. She was dressed in a white muslin dress, high-waisted, and frilled about the ankles, and with a great many-pale-blue bows of ribbon with long fluttering ends. She raised her melting eyes to Pen’s face, and breathed: “Can I trust you?”
Miss Creed was a literal-minded female, and instead of responding with promptness and true chivalry, she replied cautiously: “Well, probably you can, but I am not sure till I know what it is that you want.”
Miss Daubenay seemed a little daunted for a moment, and said in a soft moan: “I am in such a taking! I have been very, very silly!”