t him nor at his sketch, but at the distant prospect.

"It's--nice and open," he answered absently.

"Open? Wait till you've lived in it. To me it's like living with all
the doors shut."

"Too many woods, perhaps. And yet there's always a charm about a
wooded country; it's English."

"Yes, and, like everything English, it's much too serious, too
conventional, too"--she paused for her epithet--"too disgustingly
rich."

He was more startled than ever; she had put his own feeling about it
into words.

"And then it's so painfully proper and respectable. Look at those
ridiculous trees in their petticoats. English to a degree."

"Ah!--if you've been abroad----"

"I haven't been abroad."

"Proud insular boast!"

"I wasn't boasting. I was stating a fact."

"Well, you've some cause to boast. Not to have been abroad is
distinction nowadays."

"If it comes to that I've never been out of this county, except to
London now and then. You wouldn't think it."

He smiled, for it happened to be precisely what he had thought. It
explained her somehow; he recognized in Miss Tancred the incurable
provincial. To be sure, her sentiments were somewhat at variance
with her character, an inconsistency not unusual in woman. All he
said was, "It is a little extraordinary." He was wondering when she
was going to go. She did not go.

"I'm glad you've discovered something to do here. It must be so
deadly dull."

He found relief in ambiguity. "I am never dull"; adding
irrelevantly, "it's a glorious view."

She brightened visibly. "If you like I can show you a better one
than this. It's not so very far;"--she hesitated--"we might go
to-morrow, perhaps; though it wouldn't be very amusing, I'm afraid."

Again he felt a touch of compunction. She had so clearly grasped the
situation; she was so evidently sorry for him, so conscientious,
even if mistaken, in her efforts to make amends, that he found her
positively pathetic. He answered humbly that he would be delighted
if she would be so good.

Then, conscientiously again, she left him. He watched her tall
figure departing with energetic strides, and he decided that Miss
Tancred was not so bad out of doors, but that she needed a large
background.

The next morning he had the grace to remind her of her promise. They
started at a rapid pace. Durant left the paraphernalia of his art
behind him by way of intimating delicately that the hour was hers.
Miss Tancred was evidently prepared