the air of a half-blindfold person trying to find her way along
strange roads.

They passed out into the cool and darkness of the cloisters, and through
the new buildings, and soon they were in the Broad Walk, trees as old as
the Commonwealth bending overhead, and in front the dazzling green of the
June meadows, the shining river in the distance, and the sweep of
cloud-flecked blue arching in the whole.

The gentlemen were waiting for them, metamorphosed in boating-clothes,
and the two boats were ready. A knot of idlers and lookers-on watched the
embarkation, for on Sunday the river is forsaken, and they were the only
adventurers on its blue expanse. Off they pushed, Miss Bretherton,
Kendal, Mr. Stuart, and Forbes in one boat, the remaining members of the
party in the other. Isabel Bretherton had thrown off the wrap which she
always carried with her, and which she had gathered round her in the
cathedral, and it lay about her in green fur-edged folds, bringing her
white dress into relief, the shapely fall of the shoulders and all the
round slimness of her form. As Kendal took the stroke oar, after he had
arranged everything for her comfort, he asked her if Oxford was what she
had expected.

'A thousand times better!' she said eagerly.

'You have a wonderful power of enjoyment. One would think your London
life would have spoilt it a little.'

'I don't think anything ever could. I was always laughed at for it as a
child, I enjoy everything.'

'Including such a day as you had yesterday? How _can_ you play the _White
Lady_ twice in one day? It's enough to wear you out.'

'Oh, everybody does it. I was bound to give a _matinee_ to the profession
some time, and yesterday had been fixed for it for ages. But I have only
given three _matinees_ altogether, and I shan't give another before my
time is up.'

'That's a good hearing,' said Kendal. 'Do you get tired of the _White
Lady_?'

'Yes,' she said emphatically; 'I am sick of her. But,' she added, bending
forward with her hands clasped on her knee, so that what she said could
be heard by Kendal only; 'have you heard, I wonder, what I have in my
head for the autumn? Oh well, we must not talk of it now; I have no right
to make it public yet. But I should like to tell you when we get to
Nuneham, if there's an opportunity.'

'We will make one,' said Kendal, with an inward qualm. And she fell back
again with a nod and a smile.

On they passed, in the blazing sunshine, thr