ersonal accident, but a vast historical accretion which has become part
of their natures.

Thus Barnet got into a way of spending many of his leisure hours on the
site of the new building, and he might have been seen on most days at
this time trying the temper of the mortar by punching the joints with his
stick, looking at the grain of a floor-board, and meditating where it
grew, or picturing under what circumstances the last fire would be
kindled in the at present sootless chimneys. One day when thus occupied
he saw three children pass by in the company of a fair young woman, whose
sudden appearance caused him to flush perceptibly.

'Ah, she is there,' he thought. 'That's a blessed thing.'

Casting an interested glance over the rising building and the busy
workmen, Lucy Savile and the little Downes passed by; and after that time
it became a regular though almost unconscious custom of Barnet to stand
in the half-completed house and look from the ungarnished windows at the
governess as she tripped towards the sea-shore with her young charges,
which she was in the habit of doing on most fine afternoons. It was on
one of these occasions, when he had been loitering on the first-floor
landing, near the hole left for the staircase, not yet erected, that
there appeared above the edge of the floor a little hat, followed by a
little head.

Barnet withdrew through a doorway, and the child came to the top of the
ladder, stepping on to the floor and crying to her sisters and Miss
Savile to follow. Another head rose above the floor, and another, and
then Lucy herself came into view. The troop ran hither and thither
through the empty, shaving-strewn rooms, and Barnet came forward.

Lucy uttered a small exclamation: she was very sorry that she had
intruded; she had not the least idea that Mr. Barnet was there: the
children had come up, and she had followed.

Barnet replied that he was only too glad to see them there. 'And now,
let me show you the rooms,' he said.

She passively assented, and he took her round. There was not much to
show in such a bare skeleton of a house, but he made the most of it, and
explained the different ornamental fittings that were soon to be fixed
here and there. Lucy made but few remarks in reply, though she seemed
pleased with her visit, and stole away down the ladder, followed by her
companions.

After this the new residence became yet more of a hobby for Barnet.
Downe's children did not f