r for
half an hour.' Look at that. A great big drop--and the cloud has come
over us as black as Erebus. Do hurry down." He was leading the way.
"What shall we do for carriages to get us to the inn?"

"There's the summer-house."

"It will hold about half of us. And think what it will be to be in
there waiting till the rain shall be over! Everybody has been so
good-humoured and now they will be so cross!"

The rain was falling in big heavy drops, slow and far between, but
almost black with their size. And the heaviness of the cloud which
had gathered over them made everything black.

"Will you have my arm?" said Silverbridge, who saw Miss Boncassen
scudding along, with Dolly Longstaff following as fast as he could.

"Oh dear no. I have got to mind my dress. There;--I have gone right
into a puddle. Oh dear!" So she ran on, and Silverbridge followed
close behind her, leaving Dolly Longstaff in the distance.

It was not only Miss Boncassen who got her feet into a puddle and
splashed her stockings. Many did so who were not obliged by their
position to maintain good-humour under their misfortunes. The storm
had come on with such unexpected quickness that there had been a
general stampede to the summer-house. As Isabel had said, there was
comfortable room for not more than half of them. In a few minutes
people were crushed who never ought to be crushed. A Countess for
whom treble-piled sofas were hardly good enough was seated on the
corner of a table till some younger and less gorgeous lady could be
made to give way. And the Marchioness was declaring she was as wet
through as though she had been dragged in a river. Mrs. Boncassen was
so absolutely quelled as to have retired into the kitchen attached
to the summer-house. Mr. Boncassen, with all his country's pluck and
pride, was proving to a knot of gentlemen round him on the verandah,
that such treachery in the weather was a thing unknown in his happier
country. Miss Boncassen had to do her best to console the splashed
ladies. "Oh Mrs. Jones, is it not a pity! What can I do for you?"

"We must bear it, my dear. It often does rain, but why on this
special day should it come down out of buckets?"

"I never was so wet in all my life," said Dolly Longstaff, poking in
his head.

"There's somebody smoking," said the Countess angrily. There was a
crowd of men smoking out on the verandah. "I never knew anything so
nasty," the Countess continued, leaving it in doubt whether s