Sir Peter escorted his friend to the sedan; saw him safely into it and walked at its side until it turned the corner. As he came back he found himself face to face with Marjolaine, who had finished her lesson and was coming out of Number Three with a book in her hand.
"There, now, Missie," he cried, "if you'd come a moment earlier, I'd have presented you to a very great man!"
"Oh?"
At his door the Admiral put his hand up to his mouth and whispered confidentially—a confidential whisper which could have been heard the other side of the river—"I say!—We 'll have a go at that horn-pipe by-and-by—what?" And chuckling he went into his house.
Marjolaine came slowly to the elm, seated herself, and proceeded to read the "Adventures of Telemachus."
CHAPTER V
CONCERNING WHAT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR
Chapter V headpiece
The sun shone; the thrush sang; the leaves of the elm rustled; the great river flowed silently; the breeze came and kissed Marjolaine and whispered "Wake up! Wake up! Something is going to happen!" But she could not hear. She only thought Telemachus was even duller than usual, and as she read of Mentor she thought of the Reverend Doctor Sternroyd. Presently—whether it was the breeze that blew her thoughts away, or the singing of the thrush, I cannot say—she lost the thread of the story; stopped thinking at all; and just sat with her elbow on her knee and her chin in her hand, looking with her great brown eyes into—what?