the prospect is a good one for the child; if not, there's no harm
done. At present there can be no objection to our yielding to
Penfold's request and letting them ride about the country together.
Mabel is, as you say, little more than a child, and it is evident that
the lad regards her rather in the light of a boy companion than as a
girl.

"She is a bit of a tomboy, you know, Mary, and has very few girlish
notions or ideas. They evidently get on capitally together, and we
need not trouble our heads about them but let things go their own way
with a clear conscience."

At the end of the time agreed upon Ralph returned home.

"And so, Ralph, you have found it better than you expected?" his
mother said to him at the conclusion of his first meal at home.

"Much better, mother. Mr. Penfold is awfully kind, and lets one do
just what one likes. His sisters are hateful women, and if I had not
been staying in the house I should certainly have played them some
trick or other just to pay them out. I wonder why they disliked me so
much. I could see it directly I arrived; but, after all, it didn't
matter much, except just at meals and in the evening. But though Mr.
Penfold was so kind, it would have been very stupid if it had not been
for Mabel Withers. We used to ride out or go for walks together every
day. She was a capital walker, and very jolly--almost as good as a
boy. She said several times that she wished she had been a boy, and I
wished so too. Still, of course, mother, I am very glad I am back.
There is no place like home, you know; and then there are the fellows
at school, and the games, and the sea, and all sorts of things; and