the horse to a shed, and having looped
the rein over a hook, patted him and ran back. The Silver Lady gave her
a hand, and they entered the dark passage together.

Stephen was thinking if she ought to begin by telling her name. But the
Haroun al Raschid feeling for adventure incognito is an innate principle
of the sons of men. It was seldom indeed that her life had afforded her
such an opportunity.

The Silver Lady on her own part also wished for silence, as she looked
for the effect on her companion when the glory of the view should break
upon her. When they had climbed the winding stone stair, which led up
some twenty feet, there was a low wide landing with the remains of the
main shaft of the mill machinery running through it. From one side rose
a stone stair curving with the outer wall of the mill tower and guarded
by a heavy iron rail. A dozen steps there were, and then a landing a
couple of yards square; then a deep doorway cut in the thickness of the
wall, round which the winding stair continued.

The Silver Lady, who had led the way, threw open the door, and motioned
to her guest to enter. Stephen stood for a few moments, surprised as
well as delighted, for the room before her as not like anything which she
had ever seen or thought of.

It was a section of almost the whole tower, and was of considerable size,
for the machinery and even the inner shaft had been removed. East and
south and west the wall had been partially cut away so that great wide
windows nearly the full height of the room showed the magnificent
panorama. In the depths of the ample windows were little cloistered
nooks where one might with a feeling of super-solitude be away from and
above the world.

The room was beautifully furnished and everywhere were flowers, with
leaves and sprays and branches where possible.

Even from where she stood in the doorway Stephen had a bird's-eye view of
the whole countryside; not only of the coast, with which she was already
familiar, and on which her windows at the Castle looked, but to the south
and west, which the hill rising steep behind the castle and to southward
shut out.

The Silver Lady could not but notice her guest's genuine admiration.

'Thou likest my room and my view. There is no use asking thee, I see
thou dost!' Stephen answered with a little gasp.

'I think it is the quaintest and most beautiful place I have ever seen!'

'I am so glad thou likest it. I have lived here fo