ing occurred to disturb Mr.
Dolman in his deep slumber. The manuscript pages which were to be
covered by his neatly written sermon lay in virgin purity before him.
In his sleep he dreamt of little Diana, and awoke presently with a
queer sense of uneasiness with regard to her. But he was by nature a
very lazy man, and it did not occur to him to inquire as to her
present whereabouts. "She's a fine little soul," he said to himself.
"I do wish Jane had not taken such a dislike to her. It is useless to
drive that sort of child; she must be led, and led gently. 'Pon my
word, I did have an entertaining morning with the little mite, and
what a lot of strawberries she made me eat! I wonder Jane did not
remark at dinner how poor my appetite was--I was dreadfully afraid she
would do so. Certainly Jane is an active woman, an excellent woman,
but just a little bit stern."

Meanwhile Diana, holding Orion by the hand, had started running up the
long avenue. The little pair soon reached the lodge gates. Diana and
her brother went out through the postern door which was at the side,
and the next moment found themselves on the highroad. This road led in
the direction of the shady woods where Apollo had hidden the bow and
arrows a few weeks ago. It was a pretty road, a couple of miles in
length, and well shaded by trees, a kind of outgrowth of the forest
itself. As she was not likely to meet any of the Dolman family on the
road, Diana did not wear her sun-bonnet, but kept it hanging on her
arm. "It is nice to be out," she said, as she tripped along. "I love
hot sun; I love twees; I love blue sky; I love dust."

"I don't," replied Orion; "this road is horrid dusty, and it gets into
my shoes. I have only my house shoes on, you know, Diana."

"Oh, never mind!" answered Diana. "If you is a giant, you isn't going
to g'umble. What is the use of g'umbling? You be all wight soon. We'll
be in the wood soon, and we'll have got the bow and arrows, and then
we'll have to pwactice shooting. Oh, I say, there's a turnstile and a
path, and I believe the path leads stwaight to the wood. Let's leave
the woad and go to the wood that way."

"All right," replied Orion. He always did say "all right" to every
single thing Diana asked him to do.

The children now found themselves in a shady lane, between high
hedgerows. It was a pretty lane, only very sultry at this time of day;
but Diana, seeing butterflies flying about, began to give chase to
them. She al