mera.

"I'm afraid you have spoiled my sport," she laughed. "I was after an
otter--though you mustn't tell Nasmyth that there is one about here."

"Certainly not," acquiesced Lisle. "But why?"

"He would consider it his duty to bring up the hounds the next meet.
Isn't it curious how slaughter appeals to a man? But Nasmyth isn't
unreasonable; there are reserves in which even the jays he longs to shoot
have sanctuary."

"But you were looking for an otter?"

"Yes; I wanted its picture, not its life. I've got several, but I'm not
satisfied; though I've been lucky lately. I got a dabchick--they're
growing scarce--not long ago."

"We'll try the next pool, if you'll let me come," suggested Lisle. "I'm
pretty good at trailing. But what do you want with their pictures?"

"For my book," she told him. "I have to make ever so many drawings in
color before I get them right. If you're fond of the wild creatures, I'll
show them to you."

Lisle said that he would be delighted, and they went on, keeping back
among tall brushwood where they skirted the swift stream at the head of
the pool, and then proceeding cautiously with the outline of their
figures softened by the heathy slopes behind. At length, creeping up
through a thin growth of alders, they stopped near another still reach
and the girl pointed to a few floating objects on its surface.

"You're good at trailing or they'd have taken fright," she said. "Still,
I think I will surprise you, if you will wait here."

"Mallard," Lisle commented. "Young birds--even where we seldom disturb
them, they're shy."

She slipped away through the alders and he noticed how little noise she
made, though the lower branches here and there brushed against her
gliding form. She was wonderfully light and graceful in her movements. As
she came out into the open there was a startled quack or two from the
birds. Lisle expected to see them rise from the water, but she called
softly and, to his vast astonishment, they ceased paddling away from her.
She called again and they turned and swam cautiously toward her, and when
she took a handful of something from a pocket and flung it upon the
surface of the stream, three or four heads were stretched forward to
seize the morsels.

While the birds drew nearer Lisle looked on admiring. She had roused his
interest when he had first seen her in her rich evening dress, but now he
thought she made a far more striking picture, and her sympathy with the
ti