Parisian invalids, too poor to go elsewhere, came to take
medicinal waters, she felt a pang of disappointment. Lacville, as seen
from the railway, is an unattractive place.

"Is this Madame's first visit to Lacville?" asked her fellow-traveller,
helping her out of the railway carriage. "If so, Madame would doubtless
like to make her way to the lake. Would she care to accompany us
thither?"

Sylvia hesitated. She almost felt inclined to go back to Paris by the
next train. She told herself that there was no hope of finding Anna in
such a large place, and that it was unlikely that this dreary-looking
town would offer anything in the least pleasant or amusing on a very
hot day.

But "It will be enchanting by the lake!" she heard some one say eagerly.
And this chance remark made up her mind for her. After all, she might as
well go and see the lake, of which everyone who mentioned Lacville spoke
so enthusiastically.

Down the whole party swept along a narrow street, bordered by high white
houses, shabby cafes, and little shops. Quite a crowd had left the
station, and they were all now going the same way.

A turn in the narrow street, and Sylvia uttered a low cry of pleasure and
astonishment!

Before her, like a scene in a play when the curtain is rung up, there
suddenly appeared an immense sunlit expanse of water, fringed by high
trees, and bordered by quaint, pretty chalets and villas, fantastic in
shape, and each surrounded by a garden, which in many cases ran down to
the edge of the lake.

To the right, stretching out over the water, its pinnacles and minarets
reflected in blue translucent depths, rose what looked like a great white
marble palace.

"Is it not lovely?" said the Frenchman eagerly. "And the water of the
lake is so shallow, Madame, there is no fear of anyone being drowned in
it! That is such an advantage when one has children."

"And it is a hundred times more charming in the afternoon," his wife
chimed in, happily, "for then the lake is so full of little sailing-boats
that you can hardly see the water. Oh, it is gay then, very gay!"

She glanced at Mrs. Bailey's pretty grey muslin dress and elegant
parasol.

"I suppose Madame is going to one of the great restaurants? As for us,
we shall make our way into a wood and have our luncheon there. It is
expensive going to a restaurant with children."

She nodded pleasantly, with the easy, graceful familiarity which
foreigners show in their dealings w