them,
subject of course to your approval.'

'It is indeed generous of you to suggest it.' She looked thoughtfully
at him; he appeared to strike her in a new light. 'You really recommend
it?' The fairness which had prompted his words seemed to incline her
still more than before to resign herself entirely to him in the matter.

'I do,' said Somerset deliberately.

'I will think of it, since you wish it. And now, what general idea have
you of the plan to adopt? I do not positively agree to your suggestion
as yet, so I may perhaps ask the question.'

Somerset, being by this time familiar with the general plan of the
castle, took out his pencil and made a rough sketch. While he was doing
it she rose, and coming to the back of his chair, bent over him in
silence.

'Ah, I begin to see your conception,' she murmured; and the breath of
her words fanned his ear. He finished the sketch, and held it up to her,
saying--

'I would suggest that you walk over the building with Mr. Havill and
myself, and detail your ideas to us on each portion.'

'Is it necessary?'

'Clients mostly do it.'

'I will, then. But it is too late for me this evening. Please meet me
to-morrow at ten.'

X.

At ten o'clock they met in the same room, Paula appearing in a straw hat
having a bent-up brim lined with plaited silk, so that it surrounded
her forehead like a nimbus; and Somerset armed with sketch-book,
measuring-rod, and other apparatus of his craft.

'And Mr. Havill?' said the young man.

'I have not decided to employ him: if I do he shall go round with me
independently of you,' she replied rather brusquely.

Somerset was by no means sorry to hear this. His duty to Havill was
done.

'And now,' she said, as they walked on together through the passages, 'I
must tell you that I am not a mediaevalist myself; and perhaps that's a
pity.'

'What are you?'

'I am Greek--that's why I don't wish to influence your design.'

Somerset, as they proceeded, pointed out where roofs had been and
should be again, where gables had been pulled down, and where floors had
vanished, showing her how to reconstruct their details from marks in the
walls, much as a comparative anatomist reconstructs an antediluvian from
fragmentary bones and teeth. She appeared to be interested, listened
attentively, but said little in reply. They were ultimately in a long
narrow passage, indifferently lighted, when Somerset, treading on a
loose stone, felt a twinge