Ah Lon was at the table by the side of the professor, an
open atlas between them and the old gentleman in his element.
But Jinty sat apart, strangely quiet.
Ah Lon, watching out of her slits of eyes, had never seen Jinty so dull
and silent. And all that summer day it was the same.
"What's amiss with my dear maid?" anxiously asked Mrs. Barbara, when
bed-time came.
Then it all came out.
"I've lost my pearl-rimmed locket!" sobbed Jinty. "Ah Lon asked to look
at it this morning the first thing; she always does, you know. And I
took it off, and then Mike pecked my legs and Ah Lon's so hard that we
both ran away screaming, and I must have dropped the locket--and it's
gone!"
"Gone! That can't be! Unless--unless----" Mrs. Barbara hesitated, and
Jinty knew they were thinking the same thing. "Have you told Ah Lon,
deary?"
"I did this afternoon, and she cried. I never saw her cry before!"
"Ah, jes' so! You can't trust they foreigners. But I'll sift this
business, I shall!" vigorously said Mrs. Barbara.
But for days the disappearance of the locket was a mystery. In Mrs.
Barbara's mind there was no doubt that Ah Lon had taken the coveted
picture and concealed it in safe hiding. Jinty almost thought so too,
and a gloom crept over Old Studley. "I dursn't tell the master, he's
that wrapped up in the wicked little yellow-faced creature. I'll step
over to the parson and tell he," Mrs.
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