two. You're absolutely ungrateful. And I'll tell you right now, I know one piece of information, besides all this, that you'd give your eye-teeth to hear, but you won't. It's about who this mysterious 'monsieur' is!" With that, she went out, slamming the door behind her. CHAPTER IV THE MYSTERIOUS "MONSIEUR" There had been a heavy fall of snow during the night. It lay on trees and hedges in great, powdery clumps and drifted over the Green in huge, wind-swept hillocks. But the sky that afternoon was blue and cloudless, and the click of snow-shovels rang out on the still air. In front of the Birdseys' gate, Carol and Sue were frantically shoveling a footway, not because they had to, but for the sheer joy of exercise in the invigorating air. "It's queer we haven't seen anything of Louis since that visitor came," commented Carol. "He's missing a lot of time at school, and I'm sure he hates that." "Yes, it's three days since 'Monsieur,' as the Imp calls him, came. We haven't seen anything of him, either," added Sue. "Do you suppose he's going to stay shut up and invisible all the time? Who do you suppose he is, anyway, and doesn't it make you furious to think that the Imp knows, or says she does, and that we don't?""There's Louis now," was Carol's only reply. "He's just come out to shovel his walk," and she waved her own shovel to him in greeting. In another moment Louis had strolled over to join them. He was of medium height, a slenderly-built fellow, with short-cropped, wavy, chestnut hair and fine brown eyes. He also possessed a smile that was peculiarly winning. "Hello, you strangers! I thought you'd be out this afternoon. Isn't it ripping weather?" he greeted them. "Where's Dave?" "He's gone to Bridgeton with Father," answered Sue, "but where have _you_ been all this time? Not sick, I hope?" The boy's face clouded and he dug his shovel viciously into a snowbank. "No, not sick, but dilly-dallying around the house, helping to wait on that old gentleman. They don't seem to care how much time I lose." It was the first time the girls had ever heard him speak so bitterly. "We heard that you had a visitor," said Carol, striving hard to seem only politely interested.
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