ery early, barely half-past five; but the glorious summer
morning was calling, calling insistently to Toni to come and share its
glories; and the call was not one to be disregarded, by Antonia at
least.

Not a thing stirred. In the gallery the Ten Little Ladies grew wan and
faded before the vitality of the daylight; and when, after some
difficulty, Toni unlocked the big hall door and let in a flood of
sunshine, they gave up the unequal contest and expired quietly.

Ah! What a world of beauty burst upon Toni's gaze as she stood,
thrilling delightfully with a sense of adventure, on the big stone steps
outside the great door.

A rush of perfume from the tall lilies greeted her first; followed by a
perfect shower of fragrance from the pink and creamy roses growing
beside the door. Other scents there were--a dozen of them--from the
flowers massed in glowing ranks in the beds; but the lilies and the
roses had it all their own way; and Toni laughed with delight as they
assailed her with their sweetness.

There was music, too, in this pearly dawn. In the trees the birds were
astir, twittering their songs of morning; and already the velvety brown
bees were beginning to hum their spinning chorus as they hovered here
and there among the tall flowers which stood in rows before the windows,
like marriageable maidens waiting for inspection.

Beyond the terrace lay the river, shining with that strange, ethereal
effect of silver which water has beneath the early morning sky; and away
beyond the river the thin, delicate mists of the night were rising like
vaporous ghosts, to dissolve in the fresh, clean atmosphere of dawn.

"Oh, how beautiful it all is! What a lovely world God made when He
made--this!" Toni stood on the steps with arms outstretched, like some
young priestess of a pagan faith welcoming the sun. "And why do we lie
asleep in stuffy beds when all the birds and flowers have been awake for
ages!"

She pulled the big door gently to behind her, and then ran through the
gardens and across the terrace to the big grey balustrade which kept the
boundary of the garden from the towing path beyond. Leaning her arms on
the stone she looked out over the shining river, and in fancy her spirit
roved here and there--to the violet-strewn mountain slopes of Italy
where she had passed her childhood ... to the wonderful, rocky coast of
Cornwall where her honeymoon had been spent.

At the thought of the Cornish seas she caught her brea