the soft sound of it that had reminded him
of something far away? It was a haunting sound, and he kept puzzling
over the vague association it seemed to call up. At last he frankly
mentioned the matter to Miss Lind, who seemed greatly pleased.

"Ah, did you like the sound?" she said, in that low and harmonious voice
of hers. "The bell was an invention of my own; shall I show it to you?"

The Dresden shepherdess, by name Anneli, being despatched into the hall,
presently returned with an object somewhat resembling in shape a
Cheshire cheese, but round at the top, formed of roughly filed metal of
a lustrous yellow-gray. Round the rude square handle surmounting it was
carelessly twisted a bit of old orange silk; other decoration there was
none.

"Do you see what it is now?" she said. "Only one of the great bells the
people use for the cattle on the Campagna. Where did I get it? Oh, you
know the Piazza Montenara, in Rome, of course? There is a place there
where they sell such things to the country people. You could get one
without difficulty, if you are not afraid of being laughed at as a mad
Englishman. That bit of embroidered ribbon, though, I got in an old shop
in Florence."

Indeed, what struck him further was, not only the foreign look of the
little room and its belongings, but also the extraordinary familiarity
with foreign cities shown by both Lind and his daughter. As the rambling
conversation went on (the sonorous cattle-bell had been removed by the
rosy-cheeked Anneli), they appeared to be just as much at home in
Madrid, in Munich, in Turin, or Genoa as in London. And it was no vague
and general tourist's knowledge that these two cosmopolitans showed; it
was rather the knowledge of a resident--an intimate acquaintance with
persons, streets, shops, and houses. George Brand was a bit of a
globe-trotter himself, and was entirely interested in this talk about
places and things that he knew. He got to be quite at home with those
people, whose own home seemed to be Europe. Reminiscences, anecdotes
flowed freely on; the dinner passed with unconscious rapidity. Lord
Evelyn was delighted and pleased beyond measure to observe the more than
courteous attention that his friend paid to Natalie Lind.

But all this while what mention was there of the great and wonderful
organization--a mere far-off glimpse of which had so captured Lord
Evelyn's fervent imagination? Not a word. The sceptic who had come among
them could find n