nd-watery young person she is beside that
magnificent, unconscious beauty! I give in, Phil! I admit your taste.
I'm willing to swear that she's a Sun-Angel if you like. Her voice has
convinced me of that."

At that instant the song ceased. Errington turned and regarded him
steadfastly.

"Are _you_ hit, George?" he said softly, with a forced smile.

Lorimer's face flushed, but he met his friend's eyes frankly.

"I am no poacher, old fellow," he answered in the same quiet accents; "I
think you know that. If that girl's mind is as lovely as her face, I
say, go in and win!"

Sir Philip smiled. His brow cleared and an expression of relief settled
there. The look of gladness was unconscious; but Lorimer saw it at once
and noted it.

"Nonsense!" he said in a mirthful undertone. "How can I go in and win,
as you say? What am I to do? I can't go up to that window and speak to
her,--she might take me for a thief."

"You look like a thief," replied Lorimer, surveying his friend's
athletic figure, clad in its loose but well-cut yachting suit of white
flannel, ornamented with silver anchor buttons, and taking a
comprehensive glance from the easy pose of the fine head and handsome
face, down to the trim foot with the high and well-arched instep, "very
much like a thief? I wonder I haven't noticed it before. Any London
policeman would arrest you on the mere fact of your suspicious
appearance."

Errington laughed. "Well, my boy, whatever my looks may testify, I am at
this moment an undoubted trespasser on private property,--and so are you
for that matter. What shall we do?"

"Find the front door and ring the bell," suggested George promptly. "Say
we are benighted travellers and have lost our way. The _bonde_ can but
flay us. The operation, I believe, is painful, but it cannot last long."

"George, you are incorrigible! Suppose we go back and try the other side
of this pine-wood? That might lead us to the front of the house."

"I don't see why we shouldn't walk coolly past that window," said
Lorimer. "If any observation is made by the fair 'Marguerite' yonder, we
can boldly say we have come to see the _bonde_."

Unconsciously they had both raised their voices a little during the
latter part of their hasty dialogue, and at the instant when Lorimer
uttered the last words, a heavy hand was laid on each of their
shoulders,--a hand that turned them round forcibly away from the window
they had been gazing at, and a deep, resonan