ewhat by surprise at the request, looked up into
Lady Albury's face. "Go with him, my dear, if you are not tired,"
said Lady Albury. "He deserves consolation after all his good deeds
to you." Ayala still doubted. Though she was on terms of pleasant
friendship with the man, yet she felt almost awestruck at this sudden
request that she should walk alone with him. But not to do so,
especially after Lady Albury's injunction, would have been peculiar.
She certainly was not tired, and had such a walk come naturally it
would have been an additional pleasure to her; but now, though she
went she hesitated, and showed her hesitation.

"Are you afraid to come with me?" he said, as soon as they were out
on the gravel together.

"Afraid! Oh, dear no, I should not be afraid to go anywhere with you,
I think; only it seemed odd that you did not ask Nina too."

"Shall I tell you why?"

"Why was it?"

"Because I have something to say to you which I do not want Nina
to hear just at this moment. And then I thought that we were such
friends that you would not mind coming with me."

"Of course we are," said Ayala.

"I don't know why it should be so, but I seem to have known you years
instead of days."

"Perhaps that is because you knew papa."

"More likely because I have learnt to know your papa's daughter."

"Do you mean Lucy?"

"I mean Ayala."

"That is saying the same thing twice over. You know me because you
know me."

"Just that. How long do you suppose I have known that Mrs. Gregory,
who sat opposite to us yesterday?"

"How can I tell?"

"Just fifteen years. I was going to Harrow when she came as a young
girl to stay with my mother. Her people and my people had known
each other for the last fifty years. Since that I have seen her
constantly, and of course we are very intimate."

"I suppose so."

"I know as much about her after all that as if we had lived in two
different hemispheres and couldn't speak a word of each other's
language. There isn't a thought or a feeling in common between us. I
ask after her husband and her children, and then tell her it's going
to rain. She says something about the old General's health, and then
there is an end of everything between us. When next we meet we do it
all over again."

"How very uninteresting!" said Ayala.

"Very uninteresting. It is because there are so many Mrs. Gregorys
about that I like to go down to Drumcaller and live by myself.
Perhaps you're a Mrs. Gregory