hem close to the chateau, they came suddenly upon a young woman, dressed
in black, who must have heard their last words.

Instantly George Trent had his hat in his hand, and before Virginia could
speak he had dismounted and plunged into explanations. He begged pardon
for the intrusion, and said that, as they had seen the announcement that
the chateau was for sale, they had ventured to ride up in the hope of
being allowed to see the house. As he spoke, in fairly good though rather
laboured French, he smiled on the girl in black with a charming smile,
very like Virginia's. And Lady Gardiner looked from one to the other
gravely. She was not as pleased as she had been that George Trent had
come here with them, for the girl in the shabby black dress had a
curiously arresting, if not beautiful face, and her surroundings, the
background of the desolate castle, and the circumstances of the meeting,
framed her in romance.

Lady Gardiner did not like the alacrity with which Trent had snatched off
his hat and sprung from his horse, nor did she approve of the expression
in his eyes, though Virginia's were just as eager.

To the surprise of all three, the girl answered in English; not the
English of a French _jeune fille_, instructed by an imported "Miss," but
the English of an Englishwoman, pure and sweet, though the voice was sad
and lifeless. Her melancholy dark eyes, deep and sombre as mountain
tarns, wandered from the brother's handsome face to the beautiful one of
the sister.

"Pray don't speak of an intrusion," she said. "Our servant will be glad
to show you through the house, and afterward, if you really think of
buying the place, he will give you the address of an agent in Mentone who
can tell you everything."

"Then shan't we find you again when we have seen the chateau?" asked
Virginia wistfully.

The girl smiled for the first time, but there was no brightness in the
smile. "I shall be very pleased to speak with you before you go if there
is anything you care to say to me," she replied, mechanically raising
the great bunch of heliotrope she had been gathering to her lips.

"Now I will call our servant. He will put up your horses while you go in;
though I'm afraid that we have no very good accommodation for them, as
our stables have been empty for a long time."

"Oh, thank you, we needn't give him that trouble," said Trent. "I can
fasten the horses' bridles to some tree or other, and they will be all
right."

Th