ave come at last, sir,' she went on; 'and I am grateful to
you. I did not like writing, and yet I wanted to be straightforward.
Have you guessed at all why I wished to see you so much that I could not
help sending twice to you?'

'I have tried, but cannot.'

'Try again. It is a pretty reason, which I hope you'll forgive.'

'I am sure I sha'n't unriddle it. But I'll say this on my own account
before you tell me. I have always taken a lingering interest in you,
which you must value for what it is worth. It originated, so far as it
concerns you personally, with the sight of you in that cottage round the
corner, nineteen or twenty years ago, when I became tenant of the castle
opposite. But that was not the very beginning. The very beginning was
a score of years before that, when I, a young fellow of one-and-twenty,
coming home here, from London, to see my father, encountered a tender
woman as like you as your double; was much attracted by her as I saw
her day after day flit past this window; till I made it my business to
accompany her in her walks awhile. I, as you know, was not a staunch
fellow, and it all ended badly. But, at any rate you, her daughter, and
I are friends.'

'Ah! there she is!' suddenly exclaimed Avice, whose attention had
wandered somewhat from his retrospective discourse. She was looking from
the window towards the cliffs, where, upon the open ground quite near at
hand, a slender female form was seen rambling along. 'She is out for
a walk,' Avice continued. 'I wonder if she is going to call here this
afternoon? She is living at the castle opposite as governess.'

'O, she's--'

'Yes. Her education was very thorough--better even than her
grandmother's. I was the neglected one, and her father and myself both
vowed that there should be no complaint on that score about her. We
christened her Avice, to keep up the name, as you requested. I wish you
could speak to her--I am sure you would like her.'

'Is that the baby?' faltered Jocelyn.

'Yes, the baby.'

The person signified, now much nearer, was a still more modernized,
up-to-date edition of the two Avices of that blood with whom he had been
involved more or less for the last forty years. A ladylike creature was
she--almost elegant. She was altogether finer in figure than her
mother or grandmother had ever been, which made her more of a woman in
appearance than in years. She wore a large-disked sun-hat, with a brim
like a wheel whose spokes were r