were once again the eyes of a child.

"Do you know, Mrs. Rose"--Herrick felt there was danger in prolonging
the situation once she had attained a comparative serenity--"I'm afraid
it's going to rain! Don't you think we had better be moving homewards?"

She rose at once.

"Just as you like." She spoke with the utmost docility. "I suppose we
had better go. I haven't an umbrella--have you?"

"No--and your dress is thin." He looked at her white gown, which had not
been improved by her incarceration in the mouldy summer-house, and
showed traces of the dust and dirt of the bench on which she had
crouched while the two women talked outside. Altogether Toni presented a
pathetic little figure; and Herrick felt a sudden desire to know her
safely at home, hidden from inquisitive eyes.

He called Olga, who had been playing an enticing game of hunting quite
imaginary rabbits in the hedgerow; and when the great dog bounded up in
obedience to his summons, he jumped over the stile and held out his hand
to help Toni. She climbed over rather lifelessly, catching her white
skirt on a splinter of wood and tearing a rent which filled Herrick with
dismay.

"You've torn your pretty dress! What a shame--will it be quite spoilt?"

"Oh no, I can mead it," she returned indifferently, "and any way it
doesn't matter." To Toni nothing mattered just then.

"That wretched splinter was to blame. I'm afraid I didn't notice it," he
said contritely.

"Oh, it wasn't your fault. Perhaps it was one of your queer creatures,
the Boo-Boos," said Toni with a wintry attempt at a smile; and Herrick
was struck with the readiness with which she had adopted his whimsical
theory.

As they went across the fields beneath the now cloudy sky, he tried to
keep the conversation at the same light level; but although Toni strove
to adapt herself to his mood, it was evident that her thoughts were
still circling round the revelation which had shattered her fairy
castle; and just as the chimneys of Greenriver came in sight above the
tall tree-tops, she asked him a question which had been formulating in
her mind throughout the walk homewards.

"Mr. Herrick, do you think I could improve myself somehow--I mean could
I read some books, or do something to make myself a more suitable wife
for Owen? You know"--she caught her breath--"I can't bear for him to be
ashamed of me, or bored with me--and they said--those women, that he was
both."

For a second Herrick thought o