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victualling the castle previous to the last siege, in the year sixteen hundred and forty-five."

"It is very weary, and has come a long way, I think," said a lady ; adding, in an imaginative tone, "the humble creature looks so aged and is so quaintly saddled that we may suppose it to be only an animated relic of the same date as the other remains."

By this time Lord Mountclere had noticed Ethelberta's presence, and straightening himself to ten years younger, he lifted his hat and came up jauntily. It was a good time now to see what the viscount was really like. He appeared to be about sixty-five, and the dignified aspect which he wore to a gazer at a distance became depreciated to jocund slyness upon nearer view, when the small type could be read between the leading lines. Then it could be seen that his upper lip dropped to a point in the middle, as if impressing silence upon his too demonstrative lower one. His right and left profiles were different, one corner of his mouth being more compressed than the other, producing a deep line thence downwards to the side of his chin. Each eyebrow rose obliquely outwards and upwards, and was thus far above the little eye, shining with the clearness of a pond that has just been able to weather the heats of summer. Below this was a preternaturally fat jowl, which, by thrusting against cheeks and chin, caused the arch old mouth to be almost buried at the corners.

A few words of greeting passed, and Ethelberta told him how she was fearing to meet them all, united and primed with their morning's knowledge as they appeared to be.

"Well, we have not done much yet," he said. "As for myself, I have given no thought at all to our day's work. I had not forgotten your promise to attend, if you could possibly drive across, and-hee-heehee!--I have frequently looked towards the hill where the road descends

Will you now permit me to introduce some of my party-as many of them as you care to know by name? I think they would all like to speak to you."

Ethelberta then found herself nominally made known to ten or a dozen ladies and gentlemen who had wished for special acquaintance with her. She stood there, as all women stand who have made themselves remarkable by their originality, or devotion to any singular cause, as a person freed of her hampering and inconvenient sex, and, by virtue of her popularity, unfettered from the conventionalities of manner prescribed by custom for household womankind. The charter to move abroad unchaperoned, which society for good reasons grants only to women of three sorts the famous, the ministering, and the improper-Ethelberta was in a fair way to make splendid use of: instead of walking in protected lanes she experienced that luxury of isolation which normally is enjoyed by men alone, in conjunction with the attention naturally bestowed on a woman young and fair. Among the presentations were Mr. and Mrs. Tynn, member and member's mainspring for North Wessex; Sir Cyril

and Lady Blandsbury; Lady Jane Joy; the Honourable Edgar Mountclere, the viscount's younger brother; also the learned Doctor Yore; Mr. Small, a talented writer, who never printed his works; the Reverend Mr. Brook, Rector; the Very Reverend Dr. Taylor, Dean; and the rather reverend Mr. Tinkleton, Nonconformist, who had slipped into the fold by chance.

These and others looked with interest at Ethelberta; the old county fathers hard, as at a questionable town phenomenon, the county sons tenderly, as at a pretty creature, and the county daughters with great admiration, as at a lady reported by their mammas to be no better than she should be. It will be seen that Ethelberta was the sort of woman that well-rooted local people might like to look at on such a free and friendly occasion as an archæological meeting, where, to gratify a pleasant whim, the picturesque form of acquaintance is for the nonce preferred to the useful, the spirits being so brisk as to swerve from strict attention to the select and sequent gifts of heaven, blood and acres, to consider for an idle moment the unstable subversive ether, brains.

"Our progress in the survey of the castle has not been far as yet,” Lord Mountclere resumed; "indeed, we have only just arrived, the weather this morning being so unsettled. When you came up we were engaged in a preliminary study of the poor animal you see there: how it could have got up here we cannot understand."

He pointed as he spoke to the donkey which had brought Ethelberta thither, whereupon she was silent and gazed at her untoward beast as if she had never before beheld him.

The ass looked at Ethelberta as though he would say, "Why don't you own me, after safely bringing you over those weary hills?" But the pride and emulation which had made her what she was would not permit her, as the beautifullest woman there, to take upon her own shoulders the ridicule which had already been cast upon the ass. Had he been young and gaily caparisoned, she might have done it; but his age, the clumsy trappings of rustic make, and his needy woful look of hard servitude, were too much to endure.

"Many come and picnic here," she said, serenely, "and the animal may have been left till they return from some walk."

"True," said Lord Mountclere, without the slightest suspicion of the truth. The humble ass hung his head in his usual manner, and it demanded little fancy from Ethelberta to imagine that he despised her. And then her mind flew back to her history and extraction, to her father -perhaps at that moment inventing a private plate-powder in an underground pantry-and with a groan at her inconsistency in being ashamed of the ass, she said in her heart, "My God, what a thing am I !"

They then all moved round to another part of the castle, and as they went indiscriminately mingled, jesting lightly or talking in earnest, she beheld ahead of her the form of Neigh among the rest.

Now, there could only be one reason on earth for Neigh's presence

her remark that she might attend-for Neigh took no more interest in antiquities than in the back of the moon. Ethelberta was a little flurried; perhaps he had come to scold her, or to treat her badly in that indefinable way of his by which he could make a woman feel as nothing without any direct act at all. She was afraid of him, and, determining to shun him, was thankful that Lord Mountclere was near, to take off the edge of Neigh's manner towards her if he approached.

"Do you know in what part of the ruins the lecture is to be given?" she said to the viscount.

"Wherever you like," he replied gallantly. "Do you propose a place, and I will get Dr. Yore to adopt it. Say, shall it be here, or where they are standing?"

How could Ethelberta refrain from exercising a little power when it was put into her hands in this way?

"Let it be here," she said, "if it makes no difference to the meeting." "It shall be," said Lord Mountclere.

And then the lively old nobleman skipped like a roe to the President and to Dr. Yore, who was to read the paper on the castle, and they soon appeared coming back to where the viscount's party and Ethelberta were beginning to seat themselves. The bulk of the company followed, and Dr. Yore began.

He must have had a countenance of leather-as, indeed, from his colour he appeared to have-to stand unmoved in his position, and read, and look up to give explanations, without a change of muscle, under the dozens of bright eyes that were there converged upon him, like the sticks of a fan, from the ladies who sat round him in a semicircle upon the grass. However, he went on calmly, and the women sheltered themselves from the heat with their umbrellas and sun-shades, their ears lulled by the hum of insects, and by the drone of the doctor's voice. The reader buzzed on with the history of the castle, tracing its development from a mound with a few earthworks to its condition in Norman times; he related monkish marvels connected with the spot; its resistance under Matilda to Stephen, its probable shape while a residence of King John, and the sad story of the Damsel of Brittany, sister of his victim Arthur, who was confined here in company with the two daughters of Alexander, king of Scotland. He went on to recount the confinement of Edward II. herein, previous to his murder at Berkeley, the gay doings in the reign of Elizabeth, and so downward through time to the final overthrow of the stern old pile. As he proceeded, the lecturer pointed with his finger at the various features appertaining to the date of his story, which he told with splendid vigour when he had warmed to his work, till his narrative, particularly in the conjectural and romantic parts, where it became coloured rather by the speaker's imagination than by the pigments of history, gathered together the wandering thoughts of all. It was easy for him then to meet those fair concentred eyes, when the sun-shades were thrown back, and complexions forgotten, in the interest of the history.

The doctor's face was then no longer criticised as a rugged boulder, a dried fig, an oak carving, or a walnut shell, but became blotted out like a mountain top in a shining haze by the nebulous pictures conjured by his tale.

Then the lecture ended, and questions were asked, and individuals of the company wandered at will, the light dresses of the ladies sweeping over the hot grass, and brushing up thistledown which had hitherto lain quiescent, so that it rose in a flight from the skirts of each like a comet's tail.

Some of Lord Mountclere's party, including himself and Ethelberta, wandered now into a cool dungeon, partly open to the air overhead, where long arms of ivy hung between their eyes and the white sky. While they were here, Lady Jane Joy and some other friends of the viscount told Ethelberta that they were probably coming on to Knollsea.

She instantly perceived that getting into close quarters in that way might be very inconvenient, considering the youngsters she had under her charge, and straightway decided upon a point that she had debated for several days-a visit to her aunt in Normandy. In London it had been a mere thought, but the Channel had looked so tempting from its brink that the journey was virtually fixed as soon as she reached Knollsea, and found that a little pleasure steamer crossed to Cherbourg once a week during the summer, so that she would not have to enter the crowded routes at all.

“I am afraid I shall not see you in Knollsea," she said. about to go to Cherbourg and then to Rouen."

"How sorry I am. When do you leave?"

"I am

"At the beginning of next week," said Ethelberta, settling the time there and then.

“Did I hear you say that you were going to Cherbourg and Rouen? Lord Mountclere inquired.

"I think to do so," said Ethelberta.

"I am going to Normandy myself," said a voice behind her, and without turning she knew that Neigh was standing there.

They next went outside, and Lord Mountclere offered Ethelberta his arm on the ground of assisting her down the burnished grass slope. Ethelberta, taking pity upon him, gave it; but the assistance was all on her side, for she stood like a statue amid his slips and totterings, some of which taxed her strength heavily, and her ingenuity more, to appear as the supported and not the supporter. The incident brought Neigh still further from his retirement, and she learnt that he was one of a yachting party which had put in at Knollsea that morning; she was greatly relieved to find that he was just now on his way to London, whence he would probably proceed on his journey abroad.

Ethelberta adhered as well as she could to her resolve that Neigh should not speak with her alone, but by dint of perseverance he did manage to address her without being overheard.

"Will you give me an answer?" said Neigh. "I have come on pur

pose.'

"I cannot just now.
I have been led to doubt you."
"Doubt me? What new wrong have I done?"

"Spoken jestingly of my visit to Harefield."

"Good! I did not speak or think of you. When I named that incident I had no idea who the lady was-I did not know it was you till two days later, and I at once held my tongue. I vow to you upon my soul and life that what I say is true. How shall I prove my truth better

than by my errand here?"

"Don't speak of this now. I am so occupied with other things. I am going to Rouen, and will think of it on my way."

"I am going there too.

When do you go

?"

"I shall be in Rouen next Wednesday, I hope." "May I ask where?"

"Hotel Beau Sejour."

"Will you give me an answer there? I can easily call upon you. It is now a month and more since you first led me to hope-

"I did not lead you to hope-at any rate, directly."

"Indirectly you did. And although I am willing to be as considerate as any man ought to be in giving you time to think over the question, there is a limit to my patience. Any necessary delay I will put up with, but I won't be trifled with. I hate all nonsense, and can't stand it." "Indeed. Good morning."

"But Mrs. Petherwin-just one word."

"I have nothing to say."

"I will meet you at Rouen for an answer. I would meet you in Hades for the matter of that. Remember this: next Wednesday, if I live, I shall call upon you at Rouen."

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"But say it shall be an appointment." "Very well."

Lord Mountclere was by this time toddling towards them to ask if they would come on to his house, Lychworth Court, not very far distant, to lunch with the rest of the party. Neigh, having already arranged to go on to town that afternoon, was obliged to decline, and Ethelberta thought fit to do the same, idly asking Lord Mountclere if Lychworth Court lay in the direction of a gorge that was visible where they stood.

"No; considerably to the left," he said. "The opening you are looking at would reveal the sea if it were not for the trees that block the way. Ah, those trees have a history; they are half a dozen elms which I planted myself when I was a boy. How time flies!"

"It is unfortunate they stand just so as to cover the blue bit of sea. That addition would double the value of the view from here."

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