"I wonder, I wonder!" I said aloud.
"I often have, myself!" agreed a cheerful voice behind me.
With a guilty start I turned about, and there, of all people on earth, was Richard, the chauffeur, big nose and all, smiling at me in his familiar, friendly manner.
"Richard!" I cried warmly. "What brought you here?"
"I—say, Aunt Mary, I had to come, that was all," he said with troubled eyes. "It's Peaches. You know how I feel about her—how I have felt all along. I had to see her. It was as if she needed me. Just a fool hunch. But I came. I couldn't help it—you understand?"
"Understand?" I cried. "Bless the boy, I do!" Then a way out of our situation began to make itself clear in my brain and I seized him by the arm, dragging him to a bench out of general sight from the house and making him sit beside me, greatly to his bewilderment.
"Richard," I said solemnly, "have you been at the house yet?"
"Why, no!" said he. "I came right into the garden when I saw you from the drive."
"Does anybody know you are coming?"
"Not a soul!" declared Dicky. "Why all this mystery?"