How Many Miles to Babylon?

"Claude Gilroy lived quietly with his father, an architect, in the country, and it came as an unpleasant surprise to him when he was suddenly told one day that a girl would be coming to live with them. Claude hadn't much use for girls, and though when Miranda arrived (for that was her name) he did his utmost to be kind to her, he was not best pleased by the change in their lives. Gradually Claude, like the rest of the household, became intrigued with Miranda's strange, often willful ways and by her constant harping on the old nursery rhyme,

How many miles to Babylon?
Three score and ten. Can I get there by candle-light?
Yes, and back again.

This rhyme was linked in her confused mind with the tragedy of her father, a composer, who had just died and her mother whom she could barely remember. It was also linked to a haunting melody composed by her father that she used to play endlessly on the piano, but whose conclusion had never been written. The story of how the tune ended, and how Miranda eventually arrived at Babylon, forms the plot of Miss Needham's new story, and it will keep many of her devoted readers, particularly the older ones, entranced and captivated till the last page."