the same--the same houses, the same soft air, the same still sunlight,
the same things to do and places to see--no storms shaking the windows
or ships running into the harbor, and you cannot go down to the
shore to see what has happened, or up the hill to look how the sea
is raging. But it is one day we will go back to the Lewis--oh yes, we
will go back to the Lewis!"

She rose and looked wistfully around her, and then turned with a sigh
to make her way to the gates. It was with no especial sort of gladness
that she thought of returning home. Here, in the great stillness, she
had been able to dream of the far island which she knew, and to fancy
herself for a few minutes there: now she was going back to the dreary
monotony of her life in that square, and to the doubts and anxieties
which had been suggested to her in the morning. The world she was
about to enter once more seemed so much less homely, so much less full
of interest and purpose, than that other and distant world she had
been wistfully regarding for a time. The people around her had neither
the joys nor the sorrows with which she had been taught to sympathize.
Their cares seemed to her to be exaggerations of trifles--she could
feel no pity for them: their satisfaction was derived from sources
unintelligible to her. And the social atmosphere around her seemed
still and close and suffocating; so that she was like to cry out at
times for one breath of God's clear wind--for a shaft of lightning
even--to cut through the sultry and drowsy sameness of her life.

She had almost forgotten the dog by her side. While sitting under the
chestnut she had carelessly and loosely wound the leash round his neck
in the semblance of a collar, and when she rose and came away she let
the dog walk by her side without undoing the leash and taking proper
charge of him. She was thinking of far other things, indeed, when she
was startled by some one calling to her, "Look out, miss, or you'll
have your dog shot!"

She turned and caught a glimpse of what sent a thrill of terror to her
heart. Bras had sneaked off from her side--had trotted lightly over
the breckans, and was now in full chase of a herd of deer which were
flying down the slope on the other side of the plantation. He rushed
now at one, now at another: the very number of chances presented to
him proving the safety of the whole herd. But as Sheila, with a swift
flight that would have astonished most town-bred girls, followe