I love classics--Mother Goose will be just pie for me."

"Oh, I forgot," exclaimed Tavia suddenly. "I have an engagement for this
afternoon. I ought to go back, Ned. It must be lunch-time." And, as she
spoke, Dorothy remembered that the day was Thursday, and that Tavia was to
go on that day to see Miss Estelle Brooks, the little woman in black.




CHAPTER XIV

TAVIA'S TROUBLES


"You must contrive to help me, Nat," urged Tavia, when, an hour or so
later, she managed to get a word alone with him. "I can never deliberately
go off alone on an afternoon like this, when every one is so busy."

"You certainly cannot walk out to Ferndale on a day like this," answered
Nat. "I'll have to take you if you must go. But why don't you wait until
next week, when we might get a better chance?"

"Oh, I simply can't," sighed Tavia. "I feel so mean over the whole thing.
And, honestly, I'm so nervous about it. Do you suppose that woman has
anything to do with--the matter?"

"Seems to understand it, at any rate. It won't do any harm to talk with
her. I'll manage to get the machine out, and then, all in a flash, you ask
if I won't take you, pretending you did not plan it. I don't see any other