The heiress of McGregor

by Lucy Ellen Guernsey

Marion had reached the school-room door before she again remembered that she had forgotten to ask anything about Rachel.

"There! now the girls will all be at me again," she said to herself. "One good thing is that I have errands enough to do to keep me busy all through noon-time; and besides, I can tell them that Aunt Christian would rather tell the story herself."

It did occur to Marion that this was not quite an honest account of the affair, but Marion was becoming rather careless in the matter of exact truthfulness. This is very apt to be the case with people who are constantly obliged to make excuses for themselves, and Marion's conduct had needed a great many excuses of late.

The girls received her account of the matter very readily, however, the more that a new subject of interest had arisen which in some degree eclipsed the little Syrian maiden whom the girls of Holford Sunday school had been keeping at the boarding-school in Beiruyt for the last two years.

"Just think, Marion! Tone Beaubien has been seen again. Cousin Sam was up on Blue Hill looking for a stray colt, and met a man who he knows was Tone, though he had a great beard on. Sam says he recognized him in a minute. He used to know Tone very well when they were boys."

"Did he speak to him?"

"No. He was going to, but Tone—if it was Tone—dodged aside among the bushes, and Sam did not see him again. I dare say he didn't look very closely."

"And no shame to him if he didn't," said Kitty Tremaine. "I hope Sam was mistaken, for poor Therese's sake. It will be a terrible thing for her if her father turns up again."

"I should think your mother would be afraid to have her in the house," said Laura Bryant, who had told the story. "Mother says she shall never have Mrs. Beaubien to wash again."

"I think that is hardly fair," said Kitty. "Mrs. Beaubien is not to blame if her husband has come back; and, after all, it may be a mistake. One man with a beard looks very much like another. I know when we lived in Paris I used to think all Frenchmen looked exactly alike."