r's methodical spirit! I saw you pile up all
those Blackwoods of mine this morning, just as he was going to fall
upon them.'

'If you saw it, I should have expected you to do it yourself,' said
Mary, in her quaint downright manner.

'Never expect me to do what is expected,' answered he.

'Do you do that because it is not expected?' said Mary, feeling almost
as if he were beyond the pale of reason, as she saw him adjusting a
plant of groundsel in his cap.

'It is for the dicky-bird at my aunt's. There's no lack of it at the
Terrace; but it is an old habit, and there always was an illusion that
Ormersfield groundsel is a superior article.'

'I suppose that is why you grow go much.'

'Are you a gardener? Some day we will go to work, clear the place, and
separate the botanical from the intrusive!'

'I should like it, of all things!'

'I'll send the horse round to the stable, and begin at once!' exclaimed
Louis, all eagerness; but Mary demurred, as she had promised to read to
her mother and aunt some of their old favourites, Madame de Sevigne's
letters, and his attention flew off to his restless steed, which he
wanted her to admire.

'My Yeomanry charger,' he said. 'We turn out five troopers. I hope
you will be here when we go out, for going round to Northwold brought
me into a direful scrape when I went to exhibit myself to the dear old
Terrace world. My father said it was an unworthy ambition. What would
he have thought, if he had seen Jane stroking me down with the brush on
the plea of dust, but really on the principle of stroking a dog! Good
old Jane! Have you seen her yet? Has she talked to you about Master
Oliver?'

The horse became so impatient, that Mary had no time for more than a
monosyllable, before Louis was obliged to mount and ride off; and he
was seen no more till just before dinner, when, with a shade of French
malice, Mrs. Frost inquired about Jane and the carpenter: she had seen
the cap, still decorated with groundsel, lying in the hall, and had a
shrewd suspicion, but the answer went beyond her expectations--'Ah!' he
said, 'it is all the effect of the Norman mania!'

'What have you been doing? What is the matter?' she cried, alarmed.

'The matter is not with me, but with the magistrates.'

'My dear Louis, don't look so very wise and capable, or I shall think
it a very bad scrape indeed! Pray tell me what you have been about.'

'You know Sir Gilbert Brewster and Mr. Shoreland ar