a violent start. He had not previously seen the speaker,
who had been lying on the grass at a few yards' distance, screened from
sight by an intervening clump of brushwood. He came forward and stood by
the water, looking at the opened umbrella.

"I think I could get it," he said. "The water is very shallow."

"But--my dear sir--pray do not trouble yourself; it is entirely
unnecessary. I do not wish to give the slightest inconvenience,"
stammered the Englishman, secretly relieved, but very much embarrassed
at the same time. "Pray, be careful--it's very wet. Good Heaven!" The
last exclamation was caused by the fact that the new-comer had calmly
divested himself of his boots and socks and was stepping into the water.
"Indeed, it's scarcely worth the trouble that you are taking."

"It is not much trouble to wade for a minute or two in this deliciously
cool water," said the stranger, with a smile, as he returned from his
expedition, umbrella in hand. "There, I think you will find it
uninjured. It's a wonder that it was not broken. You would have been
inconvenienced without it on this hot day."

He raised his hat slightly as he spoke and moved away. The artist
received another shock. This young man--for he moved with the strength
and lightness of one still young, and his face was a young face,
too--this young man had grey hair--perfectly grey. There was not a black
thread amongst it. For one moment the artist was so much astonished that
he nearly forgot to thank the stranger for the service that he had
rendered him.

"One moment," he said, hurriedly. "Pray allow me to thank you. I am very
much obliged to you. You don't know how great a service you have done
me. If I can be of any use to you in any way----"

"It was a very trifling service," said the young man, courteously. "I
wish it had been my good fortune to do you a greater one. This was
nothing."

"Foreign!" murmured the artist to himself, as the stranger returned to
his lair behind the thicket, where he seemed to be occupying himself in
putting on his socks and boots once more. "No Englishman would have
answered in that way. I wish he had not disappeared so quickly. I should
like to have made a sketch of his head. Hum! I shall not sketch much
to-day, I fancy."

He shut up his paint-box with an air of resolution, and walked leisurely
to the spot where the young man was completing his toilet. "I ought
perhaps to explain," he began, with an air which he fancied wa