"So you think you saw Pamela come down the Folly Ho turn, and go--towards home?"

Now Miss Lasarge said this, a mere repetition of what she had just been told, in rather an uncertain tone.

Adrian said afterwards, that anyone could see she thought it was objectionable, but did not like to say so.

Christobel looked a bit anxious, but went straight to the point with the sincerity that was part of her sterling character."We don’t _think_, Little Pilgrim, we know.  The moon was bright, and the road clear as day.  Addie whistled to her, and she looked round.  We saw her look over her shoulder at us, but instead of stopping she only ran faster."

"Oh, that doesn’t sound like Pam," murmured Miss Anne.

"But it _was_ Pam," asserted Crow.

"Don’t you think you might easily have mistaken some other girl for Pamela, dear?  Moonlight is very deceptive--and you said that a cloud came directly after and obscured your vision.  Really, I can’t help feeling----"

"It was Pamela right enough, Miss Anne," said Adrian firmly; "she was as plain as a hayrick, pig-tail and all.  No other girl in Bell Bay has hair like Pamela.  Besides, when it comes to that, what other girls are there about?  Mollie Shard is not here now, and if she were, she isn’t the least like Pam."

There was a pause.  Christobel set her cup on the table and half rose.

"You needn’t go for a few minutes," suggested Miss Anne, "Mother won’t be anxious.  She got your wire, I know, because I was there when it came."

Christobel asked if Mrs. Romilly was anxious during the thunderstorm; and recounted their adventure in a few words--as matter of fact, the yawl affair had been driven out of her mind by this business about Pamela.

"It was a horrid storm here," said Miss Lasarge, apparently pleased to talk about something else, "terribly noisy, and very heavy rain.  But I understood that your mother wasn’t really anxious.  She hoped you were on shore--then it came fine--so lovely, too--I never saw anything like the colours--land and sea."

Christobel stood up to go.  She apologized again for calling in at such an hour.

"We only just thought there was a chance of Pam--having come in with a message----"

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