om her stepmother awaiting
her--a briefly worded, urgent summons.

"Your cousin has not arrived, after all," it said. "Your father and I
are greatly disappointed. Would it not be as well for you to return to
town? You can scarcely, I fear, afford to waste your time in this
fashion. Young Lord Harfield was asking for you most solicitously only
yesterday. Such a charming man, I have always thought!"

"That--chicken!" said Priscilla, and tossed her letter aside.

Later, she went up to the top of the Abbey, and out on to a part of the
roof that had been battlemented, to dream her dream again under the
stars and to view her paradise yet more closely from before the opening
gates.

It was very late when she returned lightfooted to Froggy's sitting-room,
and, kneeling by her friend's side, interposed her dark head between the
kind, bulging eyes and the open Bible that lay upon the table.

"Froggy," she whispered softly, "I'm so happy, dear--so happy!"

And so kneeling, she told Froggy in short, halting sentences of the
sudden splendour that had glorified her life.

Froggy was greatly astonished, and even startled. She was also anxious,
and showed it. But Priscilla hastened to smooth this away.

"Yes, I know it's sudden. But sometimes, you know, love is like that.
Don't be anxious, Froggy. I am much more cautious--but what a ridiculous
word!--than you think. He doesn't know who I am yet. I pretended to him
that I was a relation of yours. And he isn't to know at present. You
will keep that in mind, won't you? And in a day or two I shall bring him
in here to tea, and you will be able to judge of him for yourself. No,
dear, no; of course he hasn't spoken. It is much too soon. You forget
that though I have known him so long, he has only known me for two days.
Oh, Froggy, isn't it wonderful to think of--that he should have come at
last like this? It is almost as if--as if my love had drawn him."

VI

WITHIN HER PARADISE

Priscilla's reply to her stepmother's summons, written several days
later, was a highly unsatisfactory epistle indeed, in the opinion of its
recipient. She found it quite impossible to tear herself away from the
country while the fine weather lasted, she wrote. She was enjoying
herself immensely, and did not feel that she could ever endure the whole
of a London season in one dose again.

It was not a well-thought-out letter, being written in a haste that made
itself obvious between the lines. C