"But how could the boys spring their surprise without coming to
Hollyhill?" her father asked.

"That's just it," she returned with a quick glance of suspicion toward
both her father and her mother. "Do you know, I found myself wondering
several times if Clifford wouldn't bring some of those boys down here
some time during the holidays."

Mr. Stanlock laughed, but he would have given a good deal to be able
to recall the noise he made. It was really a noise, as he must have
admitted himself, and so hollow as to indicate something decidedly
unlike spontaneous amusement.

Marion caught herself in a brown study several times over these
circumstances and her father's manner before she went to sleep that
night.

* * * * *




CHAPTER XI.

A MAN OF BIG HEART AND QUEER NOTIONS.


Christmas was a big event at Hollyhill. Hollyhill was well named.
Perhaps some old patriarch a century or two back conceived the