, and the still
air that was sweet with the scent of the flowers of the lime-trees. They
say that the Gaelic word for the lower regions _ifrin_, is derived from
_i bhuirn_, the island of incessant rain. To a Highlander, therefore
must not this land of perpetual summer and sunshine have seemed to be
heaven itself?

And even the malicious Carry relented for a moment.

"You said you were going to the Zoological Gardens," she said.

"Yes," he answered, "I am. I have seen everything I want to see in
London but that."

"Because Gerty and I might walk across the Park with you, and show you
the way."

"I very much wish you would," said he, "if you have nothing better to
do."

"I will see if papa does not want me," said Miss White, calmly. She
might just as well be walking in Regent's Park as in this small garden.

Presently the three of them set out.

"I am glad of any excuse," she said, with a smile, "for throwing aside
that new part. It seems to me insufferably stupid. It is very hard that
you should be expected to make a character look natural when the words
you have to speak are such as no human being would use in any
circumstance whatever."

Oddly enough, he never heard her make even the slightest reference to
her profession without experiencing a sharp twinge of annoyance. He did
not stay to ask himself why this should be so. Ordinarily he simply made
haste to change the subject.

"Then why should you take the part at all?" said he, bluntly.

"Once you have given yourself up to a particular calling--you must
accept its little annoyances," she said, frankly. "I cannot have
everything my own way. I have been very fortunate in other respects. I
never had to go through the drudgery of the provinces, though they say
that is the best school possible for an actress. And I am sure the money
and the care papa has spent on my training--you see, he had no son to
send to college. I think he is far more anxious about my succeeding than
I am myself."

"But you have succeeded," said Macleod. It was, indeed, the least he
could say, with all his dislike of the subject.

"Oh, I do not call that success," said she, simply. "That is merely
pleasing people by showing them little scenes from their own
drawing-rooms transferred to the stage. They like it because it is
pretty and familiar. And people pretend to be very cynical at
present--they like things with 'no nonsense about them;' and I suppose
this son of comedy is the na