hotly and so often,
as to the relation of the good and the beautiful, art and ethics, seemed
to be answered by this bewildering revelation of sunlit smoke, playing
across the face of a purple-tinted rock, and a few feet of grass-edged
pathway.

"Come and see what visions you have conjured up, O witch!" cried Hadria.

Algitha gave a startled exclamation, as the smoke thinned and revealed
that bewildering glimpse of distant lands, half seen, as through the
atmosphere of a dream. An exquisite city, with slender towers and
temples, flashed, for a moment, through the mist curtain.

"If life is like that," she said at length, drawing a long breath,
"nothing on this earth ought to persuade us to forego it; no one has the
right to hold one back from its possession."

"No one," said Hadria; "but everyone will try!"

"Let them try," returned Algitha defiantly.

CHAPTER III.

Ernest and his two sisters walked homeward along the banks of the river,
and thence up by a winding path to the top of the cliffs. It was mild
weather, and they decided to pause in the little temple of classic
design, which some ancient owner of the Drumgarran estate, touched with
a desire for the exquisiteness of Greek outline, had built on a
promontory of the rocks, among rounded masses of wild foliage; a spot
that commanded one of the most beautiful reaches of the river. The scene
had something of classic perfection and serenity.

"I admit," said Ernest in response to some remark of one of his sisters,
"I admit that I should not like to stay here during all the best years
of my life, without prospect of widening my experience; only as a matter
of fact, the world is somewhat different from anything that you imagine,
and by no means would you find it all beer and skittles. Your smoke and
sun-vision is not to be trusted."

"But think of the pride and joy of being able to speak in that tone of
experience!" exclaimed Hadria mockingly.

"One has to pay for experience," said Ernest, shaking his head and
ignoring her taunt.

"I think one has to pay more heavily for _in_experience," she said.

"Not if one never comes in contact with the world. Girls are protected
from the realities of life so long as they remain at home, and that is
worth something after all."

Algitha snorted. "I don't know what you are pleased to call realities,
my dear Ernest, but I can assure you there are plenty of unpleasant
facts, in this protected life of ours."

"