no broken windows or palings or
hanging wicket gates; cottage gardens had been put in order, and there
were evidences of such cheering touches as new bits of window curtain
and strong-looking young plants blooming between them. So many small,
but necessary, things had been done that the whole village wore the
aspect of a place which had taken heart, and was facing existence in a
hopeful spirit. A year ago Mount Dunstan and his vicar riding through it
had been struck by its neglected and dispirited look.

As they entered the hall of the Court Miss Vanderpoel was descending the
staircase. She was laughing a little to herself, and she looked pleased
when she saw them.

"It is good of you to come," she said, as they crossed the hall to the
drawing-room. "But I told him I really thought you would. I have just
been talking to him, and he was a little uncertain as to whether he had
assumed too much."

"As to whether he had 'butted in,'" said Mr. Penzance. "I think he must
have said that."

"He did. He also was afraid that he might have been 'too fresh.'"
answered Betty.

"On our part," said Mr. Penzance, with gentle glee, "we hesitated a
moment in fear lest we also might appear to be 'butting in.'"

Then they all laughed together. They were laughing when Lady Anstruthers
entered, and she herself joined them. But to Mount Dunstan, who felt her
to be somehow a touching little person, there was manifest a tenderness
in her feeling for G. Selden. For that matter, however, there was
something already beginning to be rather affectionate in the attitude of
each of them. They went upstairs to find him lying in state upon a
big sofa placed near a window, and his joy at the sight of them was a
genuine, human thing. In fact, he had pondered a good deal in secret
on the possibility of these swell people thinking he had "more than his
share of gall" to expect them to remember him after he passed on his
junior assistant salesman's way. Reuben S. Vanderpoel's daughters
were of the highest of his Four Hundred, but they were Americans, and
Americans were not as a rule so "stuck on themselves" as the English.
And here these two swells came as friendly as you please. And that nice
old chap that was a vicar, smiling and giving him "the glad hand"!

Betty and Mount Dunstan left Mr. Penzance talking to the convalescent
after a short time. Mount Dunstan had asked to be shown the gardens. He
wanted to see the wonderful things he had heard had