ip usually went there on hot days. Would Miss Launton
and Mr. Kirkby kindly step this way?

No; he was not to trouble. They would find their own way. On the upper
terrace?

"On the upper terrace, miss."

* * * * *

The upper terrace was the one part of the old Elizabethan garden left
entirely unaltered. On either side rose up a giant wall of yew, shaped
like a castle bastion, at least ten feet thick; and between the two ran
a broad gravel path up to the sun-dial, bordered on either side by huge
herbaceous beds, blazing with the color of late summer. In two or three
places grass paths crossed these, leading by a few yards of turf to
windows cut in the hedge to give a view of the long, dazzling lake
below, and there was one gravel path, parallel to these, that led to the
little yew-framed square built out on the slope of the hill.

Two very silent persons now came out from the house by the garden door
on the south side, turned along the path, went up a dozen broad steps,
passed up the yew walk and finally turned again down the short gravel
way and stood abashed.

His lordship was indeed here!

A long wicker chair was set in one angle, facing them, in such a
position that the movement of the sun would not affect the delightful
shade in which the chair stood. A small table stood beside it, with the
_Times_ newspaper tumbled on to it, a box of cigars, a spirit-bottle of
iridescent glass, a syphon, and a tall tumbler in which a little ice lay
crumbled at the bottom. And in the wicker chair, with his mouth wide
open, slept Lord Talgarth.

"Good gracious!" whispered Jenny.

There was a silence, and then like far-off thunder a slow meditative
snore. It was not an object of beauty or dignity that they looked upon.

"In one second I shall laugh," asserted Jenny, still in a cautious
whisper.

"I think we'd better--" began Jack; and stopped petrified, to see one
vindictive-looking eye opened and regarding him, it seemed, with an
expression of extraordinary malignity. Then the other eye opened, the
mouth abruptly closed and Lord Talgarth sat up.

"God bless my soul!"

He rolled his eyes about a moment while intelligence came back.

"You needn't be ashamed of it," said Jenny. "Mr. Jack Kirkby caught me
at it, too, half an hour ago."

His lordship's senses had not even now quite returned. He still stared
at them innocently like a child, cleared his throat once or twice, and
finally sto