ply;
and Dane presently spoke for himself. It was the Dane of the
Mountain House, courteous and careless; no fellow of these
gentlemen, nor yet at all like Mr. Falkirk, a guard upon them.
Mr. Falkirk's brows had unmistakeably drawn together at sight
of the new comers; Rollo stood on the edge of the group,
indifferent and at ease, after his wonted fashion in general
society.

'You are making almost your first acquaintance with these
beautiful woods?' Stuart remarked, to the little mistress of
them, breaking the lull that Mr. Falkirk's arrival had
produced.

'How old is your own, sir?' said Mr. Falkirk.

'I--really, I don't know--I have shot here a little; before you
came, you know; when it was all waste ground.'

'I remember getting lost in them once, when I was a child,'
said Wych Hazel,--'I think that was my first acquaintance. It
was just before we went away. And Mr. Falkirk found me and
carried me home. Do you remember, sir?'

But Mr. Falkirk was oblivious of such passages of memory in
the present company. He gave no token of hearing. Instead, he
cruelly asked Mr. Kingsland how farming got on this summer?
And Mr. Kingsland, by way of returning good for evil, gave Mr.
Falkirk a shower of reports and statistics which might have
been true--they were so unhesitating. Through which rain of
facts Mr. Falkirk could just catch the sound of words from Mr.
May, the sense of which fell upon Miss Kennedy's ear alone.
Until Rollo at her side broke the course of things.

'I beg your pardon! Miss Kennedy,' (in an aside) 'I see
Primrose and her father coming. Shall I stop them?'

'Why, of course!' she said, springing to her feet, 'What a
question!'

The two recumbent gentlemen rose at once.

'Do you always wear wildwood tints, Miss Kennedy?' asked Mr.
Simms, looking up admiringly at the slim figure. 'I thought
the other day that green was matchless, but to-day--'

'Yes,' said Wych Hazel, 'but if you would just please stand
out of my way, and let me jump down. I want to see Dr.
Maryland.'

The gentleman laughed and retreated, and disregarding the half
dozen offered hands, Hazel sprang from her rock and stood out
a step or two, shading her eyes and looking down the woodland,
where Rollo had disappeared to meet the approaching carriage.
The thicket was so close just here that the carriage road
though not far off was invisible. Down below Rollo had caught
a glimpse of the well known little green buggy creeping up the