ion they had played was to end very soon now.

It was a charming house and garden that came into view as Margaret turned
the last bend of the little winding drive. The house was little and the
garden big, and the latter was literally ablaze with flowers. So was the
house, too, but on the present occasion Margaret did not discover that.

The situation on the slope of a hill was well chosen, for though fully
open to the south, the house and garden were well protected, both by
trees and by the rising ground, from the cold north and the boisterous
west wind. To-day, with the sun blazing overhead, it was like a veritable
sun-trap, and Margaret, who was beginning to feel the effects of her long
walk, looked longingly at a deck-chair that stood invitingly under the
shade of a weeping ash at the further end of the lawn.

As Margaret's footsteps sounded noisily on the gravel, the chair, which
was placed with its back to the house, creaked suddenly, and Eleanor's
head appeared round the side of it.

When her eyes fell upon Margaret, whose hand was at that minute
outstretched to lay hold of the bell, an expression of the most vivid
surprise, not unmixed with consternation, crossed her face, and, making
a warning sign to Margaret, she came running across the grass.

"Don't ring," she said, in a voice that was cautiously lowered. "Mrs.
Murray is out, and it's no use disturbing the servants. I say, what on
earth made you come up here on such a grilling day? You must be too hot
for anything!"

"I thought you would have been wondering why I had not been up here
before," said Margaret, feeling rather forlorn at the reception she was
getting.

"Not a bit of it," returned Eleanor. "I have scarcely thought of you the
last few days. I feel as if I had been Margaret Anstruther all my life!"

"And do you like it?" Margaret asked. The question slipped almost
unawares from her lips, but she could not recall it, and she waited with
a good deal of anxiety for the answer. She hoped it would not be in the
affirmative, for if it were it would make what she had to say so very
much harder for Eleanor to hear.

"Like it?" said Eleanor ecstatically. "Liking is not the word! And, oh!
I have such news, such glorious, glorious news to give you! So, on the
whole, I am glad you have come, although at first I was rather dismayed
at the riskiness of it. But come away from here. I can take you to a
quiet spot where we can have a long, long talk unheard