them this morning."

"They are just prime!" exclaimed Cedric--"food for the Olympian gods,
ambrosia and nectar too. Come along, David, or there will be none left
for you. Sit down, man, no one wants you to be waiting on us." "Yes, do
sit down, please," observed Elizabeth softly; and Mr. Carlyon slipped
at once into the empty chair beside her.

It really was a pleasant little tea-party, and Malcolm quite forgot his
longing to be back in the drawing-room at the Wood House. Indeed, he
was in high good-humour, and told his best stories, quite convulsing
Mr. Carlyon with his comic ones; indeed, he made himself so agreeable
and entertaining--he so threw himself into the spirit of their informal
picnic--that Elizabeth's bright eyes rested on his dark face more than
once with marked approval. And when they went out into the front garden
to wait for the dog-cart, Mr. Carlyon said to her confidentially, "Your
friend improves on acquaintance; I thought him a bit stand-offish and
highty-tighty yesterday, but I see now it was only mannerism."

"Some people are difficult to know at first," returned Elizabeth
thoughtfully, but she also spoke in a lowered tone. "Mr. Herrick is not
one of those people who keep all their goods in their shop window;
there is plenty more of good stuff inside, if you only take the trouble
to search for it. Dinah likes him immensely; she is getting an empty
pedestal ready for him--you know my dear old Dinah's way, bless her."
And as David knew it well, his answer was a merry laugh.

Never had Malcolm enjoyed himself more; never had he felt less disposed
to criticise and find fault; and yet Miss Elizabeth Templeton wore the
very striped blouse that had excited his ire on the previous evening;
and her hat was certainly bent in the brim, perhaps in her frantic
efforts to put up a straggling lock of brown hair that had escaped from
the coil, and which would perpetually get loose again. Malcolm noticed
at once the ripe, rich tint of the brown. "It is the real thing," he
said to himself, "it is the burnished brown of the horse-chestnut; one
seldom sees it, it is quite out of the common." And then he told
himself that he had never seen a face so capable of expression. Perhaps
this was why he watched her so closely when she talked to Mr. Carlyon.

It was arranged that Elizabeth should drive back with them in the
dog-cart. And as Malcolm took the reins, which Cedric had relinquished
in his favour, she mounted to