Chapter V: The Earl's Daughter

THE following morning, when Bob went down to breakfast, he found that his aunt had heard of his find from Lizzie, and was displeased because he had not shown it to her.

"I daresay it's a trumpery thing," she said, "but you ought to have let me see it. If you've left it upstairs fetch it at once."

Bob explained that Mrs. Winter was keeping it for him, and had promised to go with him to the police-station about it. On hearing this Mrs. Mead became very angry.

"Mrs. Winter takes too much upon herself!" she cried. "Tell her to give you the brooch at once! And tell her, too, that I hope in future she'll kindly mind her own business! As though I'm not to be trusted to do what's right!"

Bob fetched the brooch from Mrs. Winter, but did not give her his aunt's rude message.

Mrs. Mead made no remark as she examined the brooch. She held it first one way, then another, to make the stones sparkle, then put it in her pocket.

"What are you going to do with it, Aunt Martha?" inquired Bob.

"Keep it safe for you," she replied. "It's very pretty, and I think it's gold; but I can't tell about the stones—whether they're rubies or only red glass. If they're rubies the brooch will be advertised for and there'll be a reward for the finder. Say nothing about it to anyone for the time."

"Then you don't think I ought to take it to the police-station?"

"Not at present. Wait a while and see what happens."

Nothing happened in connection with the brooch that day. But the day following Bob noticed a printed bill in a shop window, which advertised the loss of a brooch exactly answering the description of the one he had found and said that anyone finding it and bringing it to Lady Margaret Browning, at a certain hotel on Clifton Down, would receive a reward of five pounds. He hurried home immediately and told Mrs. Mead what he had seen.

"Five pounds!" she exclaimed, "Humph! that's not so bad!"

"Not so bad!" Bob echoed. "I call it splendid! Oh, do let me have the brooch and I'll take it to Lady Margaret Browning at once!"

"Not so fast!" his aunt replied. "You must wait till after dinner, then I'll go with you. I can leave Lizzie to look after the shop for once, and I daresay Mrs. Winter will not mind taking charge of Jackie."

Mrs. Mead was in high good humour now. Matters were arranged as she wished, and so, about four o'clock in the afternoon, she and Bob arrived at the hotel mentioned on the bill. Mrs. Mead inquired for Lady Margaret Browning, and explained that they had come to return her lost brooch to her. They were immediately shown into a sitting-room where a young lady was seated at a writing-table.

"Oh!" she cried, on hearing her visitors' errand, "how glad I am! Yes—" as Mrs. Mead produced the brooch and handed it to her—"that is it! Oh, how delighted my father will be! It was my mother's—I lost my mother when I was a baby—and father gave it to me on my twenty-first birthday. Please sit down, both of you!"

She had risen at their entrance, but now took her chair again, whilst Bob and his aunt seated themselves side by side on a sofa. Bob, to his great surprise, had recognised Lady Margaret Browning as the young lady who had smiled at him so sweetly outside the soldier's hospital when he had been so proud to say that his father was a soldier. And she was a great lady—an earl's daughter!

"Surely I have seen you before?" she said, looking at him earnestly.

"Yes, miss," answered Bob, blushing.

"Say 'my lady,' Bob," whispered his aunt hastily.

"Oh, never mind!" said Lady Margaret. Then a flash of recognition crossed her face. "Ah, I remember you now," she cried, "and the way you spoke of your father! Is he at one of the fronts?"

"Yes, my lady," Bob replied; "in France."

Lady Margaret looked very interested. She was evidently going to ask Bob more questions about his father, but before she could do so Mrs. Mead interrupted the conversation to explain that she was making a home for her two motherless nephews during her brother's absence.

"Poor little fellows!" Lady Margaret said softly. Then she asked Bob his name and his age. "He looks pale and thin," she remarked to Mrs. Mead after the boy had answered her.

"He grows so fast—that's the reason," Mrs. Mead replied, adding, "And he works hard at school."

"But it's holiday time now, isn't it?" questioned Lady Margaret.

"Oh, yes!" Bob assented, "only—" He broke off and was silent.

He had been about to say that he worked hard in the school holidays, carrying heavy loads of vegetables, but a frowning glance from his aunt had stopped him.

Lady Margaret now rang the bell and ordered tea for her visitors. Bob was too shy to take much, but his aunt drank several cups of tea, and made a good meal on the dainties offered her. There was a cake which was not cut, and that Lady Margaret made into a parcel and gave to Bob to take home to his little brother. He was so pleased that he could scarcely find words with which to thank her, and when Lady. Margaret put five one-pound notes into his hand, the reward for the return of the brooch, he was absolutely speechless.

"Good-bye, Bob," she said, kindly; "I'm going to London to-morrow; but I hope to come here again before long, and if I do I shall try to see you. I should like to hear more about your father. I'm sure he must be a very good father, or you wouldn't love him so much, and be so proud of him. May God bless him and keep him!"

"Good-bye, my lady," the boy replied, looking at her gratefully. "Oh, I do hope I shall see you again! And Jackie would like to see you too!"

"And I should like to see Jackie!" she said, smiling. "Will you please give me your address?" she asked Mrs. Mead.

Mrs. Mead did so. But on the way home she told Bob she thought it most unlikely he would see anything more of Lady Margaret, who would most probably go away and never think of him again.

"Oh, I hope not!" the boy exclaimed. "I liked her so much! And didn't she speak nicely about father? I thought it so kind of her to say, 'May God bless him and keep him!' And the way she spoke, so softly and solemnly! Oh, Aunt Martha, it sounded like a prayer!"