a double chin and thick neck, like Queen Anne by
Dahl, threw open the lodge gate, a little boy standing behind her.

'I'll give him something, poor little fellow,' said Elfride, pulling out
her purse and hastily opening it. From the interior of her purse a host
of bits of paper, like a flock of white birds, floated into the air, and
were blown about in all directions.

'Well, to be sure!' said Stephen with a slight laugh.

'What the dickens is all that?' said Mr. Swancourt. 'Not halves of
bank-notes, Elfride?'

Elfride looked annoyed and guilty. 'They are only something of mine,
papa,' she faltered, whilst Stephen leapt out, and, assisted by the
lodge-keeper's little boy, crept about round the wheels and horse's
hoofs till the papers were all gathered together again. He handed them
back to her, and remounted.

'I suppose you are wondering what those scraps were?' she said, as they
bowled along up the sycamore avenue. 'And so I may as well tell you.
They are notes for a romance I am writing.'

She could not help colouring at the confession, much as she tried to
avoid it.

'A story, do you mean?' said Stephen, Mr. Swancourt half listening, and
catching a word of the conversation now and then.

'Yes; THE COURT OF KELLYON CASTLE; a romance of the fifteenth century.
Such writing is out of date now, I know; but I like doing it.'

'A romance carried in a purse! If a highwayman were to rob you, he would
be taken in.'

'Yes; that's my way of carrying manuscript. The real reason is, that I
mostly write bits of it on scraps of paper when I am on horseback; and I
put them there for convenience.'

'What are you going to do with your romance when you have written it?'
said Stephen.

'I don't know,' she replied, and turned her head to look at the
prospect.

For by this time they had reached the precincts of Endelstow House.
Driving through an ancient gate-way of dun-coloured stone, spanned by
the high-shouldered Tudor arch, they found themselves in a spacious
court, closed by a facade on each of its three sides. The substantial
portions of the existing building dated from the reign of Henry VIII.;
but the picturesque and sheltered spot had been the site of an erection
of a much earlier date. A licence to crenellate mansum infra manerium
suum was granted by Edward II. to 'Hugo Luxellen chivaler;' but though
the faint outline of the ditch and mound was visible at points, no sign
of the original building remained.

The