t
in Strelsau."

"There is nothing, sire, so remote from my thoughts or desires as to
convert your miller," said Osra scornfully.

In this, at the moment, she spoke truthfully; but being left alone for
some days at the Castle of Zenda, which is but a few miles from Hofbau,
she found the time hang very heavy on her hands; indeed she did not
know what to do with herself for weariness; and for this reason, and
none other at all, one day she ordered her horse and rode off with a
single groom into the forest. Coming, as the morning went on, to a
wide road, she asked the groom where it led. "To Hofbau, madame," he
answered. "It is not more than a mile further on." Osra waited a few
moments, then she said: "I will ride on and see the village, for I have
been told that it is pretty. Wait here till I return," and she rode
on, smiling a little, and with a delicate tint of colour in her cheeks.

Before long she saw the river and the mill on the river; and, coming to
the mill, she saw the miller sitting before his door, smoking a long
pipe. She called out to him, asking him to sell her a glass of milk.

"You can have it for the asking," said the miller. He was a
good-looking fair fellow, and wore a scarlet cap. "There is a pail of
it just inside the door behind me." Yet he did not rise, but lay
there, lolling luxuriously in the sun. For he did not know Osra, never
having been to Strelsau in his life, and to Zenda three or four times
only, and that when the Princess was not there. Moreover--though this,
as must be allowed, is not to the purpose--he had sworn never again to
go so far afield.

Being answered in this manner, and at the same time desiring the milk,
the Princess had no choice but to dismount.

This she did, and passed by the miller, pausing a moment to look at him
with bright curious eyes, that flashed from under the brim of her
wide-rimmed feathered hat; but the miller blinked lazily up at the sun
and took no heed of her.

Osra passed on, found the pail, poured out a cup of milk, and drank it.
Then, refilling the cup, she carried it to the miller.

"Will you not have some?" said she with a smile.

"I was too lazy to get it," said the miller; and he held out his hand,
but did not otherwise change his position.

[Illustration: J. M. Barrie]

Osra's brow puckered and her cheek flushed as she bent down, holding
the cup of milk so that the miller could reach it. He took and drained
it, gave it back