Jasper

of children andmothers and governesses had dispersed, in hopes of seeing some one fromwhom they could get information or advice. But they saw no one lookingat all like a verger, and almost in despair Chrissie caught hold of abelated choir-boy, who was passing out.

  "Please," she said, "I've lost my prayer-book. Who is there I can askabout it?"

  The boy stopped.

  "Best ask the verger," he replied. "But you can't see him just now.He's busy, I know. If you left it inside, it'll be in the vestry,pr'aps. But if you dropped it outside--well, I'm sure I can't say," andhe gave a low whistle; but as he saw the distress on the child's face hetook pity, and went on. "It _might_ be took to his house, if a honestperson picked it up. I've known of such. He's well known about here,you see--and they might have been passing that way."

  "Where is it?" gasped Chrissie.

  "Peter's Place," replied the boy, "number twenty-two," and off he ran.

  Leila and Chrissie looked at each other.

  "Peter's Place," they both exclaimed.

  It meant nothing to Jasper, of course, for he had not heard MrFortescue's warning.

  "I know," he said. "It's a funny little street near here. We could gohome that way, or I could run down from the corner. I'se so solly,Chrissie, about your prayer-book. Is it your best one?"

  "No," said Chrissie, "I haven't got a best one. It's only Lell thathas. No, it's far, far worse. Japs," she went on, "you won't tell, forp'raps we'll get it back and then it'll be all right and I'll _never_ dosuch a thing again," and seeing that there was now nothing else for it,she told Jasper the whole unhappy story.

  He grew pale with sympathy: he was too sorry for her, much to blamethough she had been, to say anything to hurt her. No one certainlycould have called the little fellow a "prig" who had seen him then. Hisone idea was to "help."

  "Come along, quick," he said. "I'll show you the way to his house," andhe sprang forward.

  "Chrissie," whispered Leila, "we daren't go--we mustn't go. Wepromised."

  "I know," Chrissie replied, "though I daresay Dads only said it for fearof our losing our way. As if we were so silly! But _Japs_ didn'tpromise, Lell?" Leila hesitated--the breaking a promise in the spirit,if not in the letter, does not come easy to honest consciences, such asthese two little girls did really possess.

  "There's nothing else to be done," persisted Christabel, trying to talkdown her own misgivings. "We won't go home that way, Lell, we'll keepto the big street, and let Japs run round to the house. He knows whereit is, and we'll wait for him."

  And to this the elder sister at last consented. "No, Japs," she said,as he was hurrying them on by what was actually the nearest way toPeter's Place, "we don't want to go that way. It's rather slummy.We'll keep to the wide streets, and when we get to the corner--you knowwhere I mean?--you can run back, you see, and Chris and I will wait foryou."

  "Werry well," said Jasper, "but Peter's Place isn't at all dirty. It'skite neat and clean, somefin' like where Nurse's cousin, what Mumsey letme go to see, lived."

  But he was pleased at the importance of being trusted, and ran offeagerly when they reached the corner in question.

  "Japs has a natural affinity for slums," Leila remarked in her ratherlordly manner, as they stood awaiting his return with what patience theycould. "He'll probably go in for Holy Orders and work himself to deathin the East End, when he grows up."

  "He might do worse," sighed Chrissie. "Any way, I wish I was as good ashe is now."

  It seemed a long time--in reality barely ten minutes had passed--before,hurrying round the further corner from where they were waiting, forPeter's Place did not run directly out of the main street, they at lastcaught sight of the little figure, and--yes, oh joy!--in his upliftedhand he was waving something,--something too small to be seendistinctly, but which, from Jasper's manner, there could be no doubt,was the precious prayer-book.

  "Got it! got it!" he shouted, almost before he was near enough for themto hear what he said. "It _was_ there. Somebody picked it up whatlives near, and brought it to the church-man's house."

  "Oh Japs, darling Japs, how glad I am," said Chrissie. "I've never beenso glad in my life. Now I can put it back on Aunt Margaret's table, andit'll be all right."

  Jasper beamed all over; it was not often that he was spoken to as"darling" by either of his sisters. But suddenly a new thought struckhim, and an anxious look came over his face.

  "But you'll tell Mumsey all about it, won't you, Chrissie?" he asked.

  Chrissie wriggled and Leila frowned.

  "I'll see about it," said the former. "I won't tell her to-day--it'sbest not to bother her on Sunday, the only day Daddy's at home."

  Leila murmured something, but Jasper did not hear what it was. Indeed,he did not listen, and his expression cleared a little.

  "Not to-day or any day," had been the elder sister's whisper. "There'sno need ever to tell."

  And great temptation _never_ to do so! For now, the indirect disregardof their father's orders as to not passing by Peter's Place had involvedLeila as well as Christabel in confession, if such ever took place."And I needn't have been mixed up in it at all, except out ofgood-nature to you," she said afterwards to Chrissie; "so if you tell,it'll be the meanest thing you ever did."

  "Why were you so long, Japs?" they asked, rather wishing to change thesubject. "Did the verger's people make a fuss about giving it to you?"

  "Oh no," was his reply, "the minute the little boy's mother sawed me,she gived it me. I told her it was a werry old book, though it was sopretty. It was lyin' on the table where he was on the sofa, but he saidI must wait till his mother came."

  "What _do_ you mean?" said Leila impatiently. "Who was lying on thesofa?"

  "The little boy--I said the little boy," answered Jasper. "He's beenwerry ill, though he's almost kite better now. But his mother didn'tlet me shake hands wif him--fear of disturbin' him, she said. Shewasn't werry polite--not _werry_. She said, `Now, sir, you'd better bequick and go.'"

  "I daresay she was busy," said Chrissie carelessly, "but she didn't needto say `be quick,' for you didn't want not to be quick."

  "In course I didn't. She'd kept me waitin'," agreed Jasper, whosefeelings had been evidently slightly ruffled. "I was only shakin'hands--goin' to, I mean. Still," he added, with his usual kindliness,"it was polite of her to say `sir' to me."

  By this time they were close to their own house. Arrived there, thelittle girls ran upstairs as quickly as possible. As quickly aspossible, too, did they take off their hats and jackets, though in spiteof Chrissie's new resolutions I fear I must own that her jacket, if nothat, found its resting-place on the floor, and as to what became ofboots and gloves I really could not say!

  For on their way past the dining-room, the door of which had beenpurposely left slightly open, they had heard their mother's voicebegging them to come down at once. "Tea is ready. Your aunt and I arewaiting for you," she said.

  To be quickly obedient, I am sorry to say, was not the motive thatinspired their haste.

  "Now's our time, Lell," said Chrissie. "There's no one in thedrawing-room. We can put it back at once on Auntie's table. I'll justslip it a little under some of the other things, so if she possibly_has_ missed it, she'll think afterwards she had made a mistake."

  "Do it yourself," said Leila, and then it was that she added her warningas to what she would think of Chrissie if she ever "told," to which noreply was vouchsafed.

  And the prayer-book was replaced, and when the little sisters made theirappearance, with, as I have said, unusual quickness, in the dining-room,their mother greeted them with her brightest smiles.

  "I really think," she was saying to herself, "that things are beginningto improve wonderfully with them."

  But Aunt Margaret, though always ready to hope and believe the best,felt less sanguine. There was a certain flurry and excitement aboutChrissie, a half-veiled uneasiness about Leila, a sort of reluctance inboth to look one frankly in th
e face, which made her anxious, though shecould have given no real reason for this.

  And Jasper was very silent, and for once the cheerful and ever-readylittle fellow seemed absent and