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.'

'You would prefer the blue sea to the trees?'

'In that particular spot I should; they might have looked just as well,
and yet have hidden nothing worth seeing. The narrow slit would have
been invaluable there.'

'They shall fall before the sun sets, in deference to your opinion,' said
Lord Mountclere.

'That would be rash indeed,' said Ethelberta, laughing, 'when my opinion
on such a point may be worth nothing whatever.'

'Where no other is acted upon, it is practically the universal one,' he
replied gaily.

And then Ethelberta's elderly admirer bade her adieu, and away the whole
party drove in a long train over the hills towards the valley wherein
stood Enckworth Court. Ethelberta's carriage was supposed by her friends
to have been left at the village inn, as were many others, and her
retiring from view on foot attracted no notice.

She watched them out of sight, and she also saw the rest depart--those
who, their interest in archaeology having begun and ended with this spot,
had, like herself, declined the hospitable viscount's invitation, and
started to drive or walk at once home again. Thereupon the castle was
quite deserted except by Ethelberta, the ass, and the jackdaws, now
floundering at ease again in and about the ivy of the keep.

Not wishing to enter Knollsea till the evening shades were falling, she
still walked amid the ruins, examining more leisurely some points which
the stress of keeping herself companionable would not allow her to attend
to while the assemblage was present. At the end of the survey, being
somewhat weary with her clambering, she sat down on the slope commanding
the gorge where the trees grew, to make a pencil sketch of the landscape
as it was revealed between the ragged walls. Thus engaged she weighed
the circumstances of Lord Mountclere's invitation, and could not be
certain if it were prudishness or simple propriety in herself which had
instigated her to refuse. She would have liked the visit for many
reasons, and if Lord Mountclere had been anybody but a remarkably
attentive old widow