the truly blessed. Belle, who usually found a brief
and fleeting attraction in any new friend, was pleased with Isobel's
devotion, and ready to be admired, petted, and waited on to any extent.
I think, too, that, to do her justice, she was really an affectionate
child, and at the time she was as fond of her friend as it was possible
for her light little character to be. She would not have troubled to
put herself out of the way for Isobel, and it would not have broken her
heart to part with her, but she enjoyed her company, and easily gave her
the first place among the dozen bosom friends each of whom she had taken
up in turn and thrown aside.

One particular afternoon found the namesakes strolling arm in arm along
the narrow sandy lane which led inland from the beach towards the woods
and the hills behind. It was the most delightful lane, with high grassy
banks covered with pink bindweed and tiny blue sheep's scabious, and
bright masses of yellow bedstraw, and great clumps of mallows, with
seed-vessels on them just like little cheeses, which you could gather
and thread on pieces of cotton to make necklaces. There was a hedge at
the top of the bank, too, where grew the beautiful twining briony, with
its dark leaves and glossy berries; and long trails of bramble, where a
few early blackberries could be discovered if you cared to reach for
them; and down among the sand at the bottom of the ditch you might find
an occasional horned poppy, or the curious flowers and glaucous prickly
leaves of the sea holly. Isobel, on the strength of a new bright-green
tin vasculum, purchased only that very morning at the toy-shop near the
station, and slung over her shoulder in the style of a student in a
German picture-book, felt herself to be a full-fledged botanist, and
rushed about in a very enthusiastic manner, scrambling up the banks
after pink centaury, diving into the hedge bottom for campions, or
getting her hair caught, like Absalom, in a prickly rose-bush in a
valiant endeavour to secure a particularly fine clump of harebells which
were nodding in the breeze on the stones of the old wall.

"They're perfectly lovely, aren't they?" she cried. "I've got fourteen
different sorts of flowers already, and I'm sure some of them must be
rare--anyway, I've never seen them before. I'm going to press them
directly I get home. Do you think this stump will bear me if I climb up
for that piece of briony?"

"I'm afraid it won't," said Belle, f