tern and obdurate in repose, relaxed in severity, while
the deep-set blue eyes grew less searching and guarded. This
alleviation became him well, a tide of youth softening his expression
as a wave smoothes the sands.

"What is the part?"

"Juliana, in 'The Honeymoon'! It is one of our stock pieces."

"And you like it?"

"Oh, yes." Lingering where a bit of sward was set with field flowers.

"And who plays the duke?" he continued.

"Mr. O'Flariaty," she answered, a suggestion of amusement in her
glance. Beneath the shading of straight, black brows, her eyes were
deceptively dark, until scrutinized closely, they resolved themselves
into a clear gray.

"Ah," he said, recalling Adonis, O'Flariaty's, appearance, and, as he
spoke, a smile of singular sweetness lightened his face. "A Spanish
grandee with a touch of the brogue! But I must not decry your noble
lord!" he added.

"No lord of mine!" she replied gaily. "My lord must have a velvet
robe, not frayed, and a sword not tin, and its most sanguinary purpose
must not be to get between his legs and trip him up! Of course, when
we act in barns--"

"In barns!"

"Oh, yes, when we can find them to act in!"

She glanced at him half-mockingly.

"I suppose you think of a barn as only a place for a horse."

The sound of carriage wheels interrupted his reply, and, looking in
the direction from whence it came, they observed a coach doubling the
curve before the willows and approaching at a rapid pace. It was a
handsome and imposing equipage, with dark crimson body and wheels,
preserving much of the grace of ancient outline with the utility of
modern springs.

As they drew aside to permit it to pass the features of its occupant
were seen, who, perceiving the young girl on the road--the shawl,
half-fallen from her shoulder revealing the plastic grace of an erect
figure--gazed at her with surprise, then thrust his head from the
window and bowed with smiling, if somewhat exaggerated, politeness.
The next moment carriage and traveler vanished down the road in a
cloud of dust, but an alert observer might have noticed an eye at the
rear port-hole, as though the person within was supplementing his
brief observation from the side with a longer, if diminishing, view
from behind.

The countenance of the young girl's companion retrograded from its
new-found favor to a more inexorable cast.

"A friend of yours?" he said, briefly.

"I never saw him before," she answered with f