She walked by his side in silence for a while, evidently collecting her thoughts. “It’s the sort of thing one finds so difficult to tell,” she said, looking guardedly round them.

“Well! Let me tell you !” he retorted, “and you correct me, if I’m wrong.”

Miss Gault nodded gravely.

“Mattie’s my father’s child,” he muttered in a low, clear voice, “and Olwen is⁠—”

Miss Gault had managed to turn her face so far away from him that he couldn’t see her expression.

“Who told you all this, boy? Who told you?” she interrupted, in such a peevish tone that two solemn-faced members of the Sixth Form of the School, with blue ribbons round their straw-hats and sticks in their hands, glanced furtively at her as they passed.