s
called Vashti) had taken her departure from Garrison Hill overnight.
Ever since breakfast he had been feeling sadly dejected about it and so
(if appearances might be trusted) had his master. There is a fearful
joy, after all, in living on a volcano.

But, alas, for Sergeant Archelaus! He was at this moment standing on
the crust of a volcano, and that crust was momentarily wearing thinner.

The shore beneath the great house of Inniscaw has two landing quays, of
which the eastern (Archelaus had used the western) lies hidden from
view of the terrace, and can be approached by a boat keeping close
under St. Lide's shore. Engrossed in his lecture upon acclimatisation,
the Lord Proprietor had missed to perceive a boat making for this
eastern quay; and so had Archelaus, for the simpler reason that he
stood with his back to the view.

"Step into the house with me, and you shall make your choice between
half-a-dozen pairs," the Lord Proprietor invited him.

"If you are sure it's not troubling you," said Archelaus.

"My good man--" began the Lord Proprietor, leading the way; and with
that he turned about, surprised that Archelaus was not following. "Eh?
What's the matter?"

But Archelaus, speechless, was staring along the terrace to its eastern
end, where, at the head of a flight of steps leading down among the
shrubberies, a head had suddenly uprisen into view--a head in a gray
bonnet with trimmings of subdued violet--the head of Miss Gabriel.

"H'm!" said Miss Gabriel, and turned to Mr. and Mrs. Pope, who were
mounting the stairway at her heels.

CHAPTER XVII

THE LORD PROPRIETOR RECEIVES A DOUBLE SHOCK

"H'm!" said Miss Gabriel again, as she once more surveyed the shrinking
Archelaus. "So you allowed you'd steal a march on me?"

"I had no such thought, ma'am," stammered Archelaus.

"You'll get no good out of it, anyway; and of that I warn you. Good
morning, sir!"--this with a curtsey to the Lord Proprietor.

"Good morning, ma'am! How d'ye do, Pope?--and your good lady is well, I
hope? But to what do I owe this unexpected--er--honour?"

"Him," said Miss Gabriel, nodding, and with scarcely a change of tone.

"To Sergeant Archelaus, ma'am? Why, what has he been doing?"

"You might better ask--" Miss Gabriel answered slowly, emphatically,
with her eye on the culprit--"what he has not."

"Whichever you please, ma'am. Come!"

"I find a difficulty in putting a name to it," pursued Miss Gabriel,
still in