d a stone
sun-dial in the centre. A peacock stalked about in the morning light,
and greeted the newly risen sun with a discordant scream. Presently a
man came out of a half glass door under a verandah which shaded one side
of the quadrangle, and strolled about the garden, stopping here and
there to cut a dead rose, or trim a geranium, a stoutly-built broad
shouldered man, with gray hair and beard, the image of well-fed
respectability.

Mr. Hammond wondered a little at the man's leisurely movements as he
sauntered about, whistling to the peacock. It was not the manner of a
servant who had duties to perform--rather that of a gentleman living at
ease, and hardly knowing how to get rid of his time.

"Some superior functionary, I suppose," thought Hammond, "the
house-steward, perhaps."

He rambled a long way over the hill, and came back to Fellside by a path
of his own discovering, which brought him to a wooden gate leading into
the stable-yard, just in time to meet Maulevrier and Lady Mary emerging
from the kennel, where his lordship had been inspecting the terriers.

'Angelina is bully about the muzzle,' said Maulevrier; 'we shall have to
give her away.'

'Oh, don't,' cried Mary. 'She is a most perfect darling, and laughs so
deliciously whenever she sees me.'

Angelina was in Lady Mary's arms at this moment; a beautifully marked
little creature, all thew and sinew, palpitating with suppressed
emotions, and grinning to her heart's content.

Lady Mary looked very fresh and bright in her neat tailor gown, kilted
kirtle, and tight-fitting bodice, with neat little brass buttons. It was
a gown of Maulevrier's ordering, made at his own tailor's. Her splendid
chestnut hair was uncovered, the short crisp curls about her forehead
dancing in the morning air. Her large, bright; brown eyes were dancing,
too, with delight at having her brother home again.

She shook hands with Mr. Hammond more graciously than last night; but
still with a carelessness which was not complimentary, looking at him
absently, as if she hardly knew that he was there, and hugging Angelina
all the time.

Hammond told his friend about his ramble over the hills, yonder, up
above that homely bench called 'Rest, and be Thankful,' on the crest of
Loughrigg Fell. He was beginning to learn the names of the hills
already. Yonder darkling brow, rugged, gloomy looking, was Nab Scar;
yonder green slope of sunny pasture, stretching wide its two arms as if
to enf