blushed, and then she laughed, and then she blushed
again, and, still blushing, rose to her feet, and turned to find Mr.
Cassilis within a yard of them.

"Ah, Miss Anthea," said he, lifting his hat, "I sent Georgy to find you,
but it seems he forgot to mention that I was waiting."

"I'm awful' sorry, Mr. Cassilis,--but Uncle Porges was telling us 'bout
dragons, you know," Small Porges hastened to explain.

"Dragons!" repeated Mr. Cassilis, with his supercilious smile, "ah,
indeed! dragons should be interesting, especially in such a very quiet,
shady nook as this,--quite an idyllic place for story-telling, it's a
positive shame to disturb you," and his sharp, white teeth gleamed
beneath his moustache, as he spoke, and he tapped his riding-boot
lightly with his hunting-crop as he fronted Bellew, who had risen, and
stood bare-armed, leaning upon his pitch-fork. And, as in their first
meeting, there was a mute antagonism in their look.

"Let me introduce you to each other," said Anthea, conscious of this
attitude,--"Mr. Cassilis, of Brampton Court,--Mr. Bellew!"

"Of nowhere in particular, sir!" added Bellew.

"And pray," said Mr. Cassilis perfunctorily as they strolled on across
the meadow, "how do you like Dapplemere, Mr. Bellew?"

"Immensely, sir,--beyond all expression!"

"Yes, it is considered rather pretty, I believe."

"Lovely, sir!" nodded Bellew, "though it is not so much the beauty of
the place itself, that appeals to me so much as what it--contains."

"Oh, indeed!" said Mr. Cassilis, with a sudden, sharp glance, "to what
do you refer?"

"Goose-berries, sir!"

"I--ah--beg your pardon?"

"Sir," said Bellew gravely, "all my life I have fostered a secret
passion for goose-berries--raw, or cooked,--in pie, pudding or jam, they
are equally alluring. Unhappily the American goose-berry is but a hollow
mockery, at best--"

"Ha?" said Mr. Cassilis, dubiously.

"Now, in goose-berries, as in everything else, sir, there is to be found
the superlative, the quintessence,--the ideal. Consequently I have
roamed East and West, and North and South, in quest of it."

"Really?" said Mr. Cassilis, stifling a yawn, and turning towards Miss
Anthea with the very slightest shrug of his shoulders.

"And, in Dapplemere," concluded Bellew, solemnly, "I have, at last,
found my ideal--"

"Goose-berry!" added Anthea with a laugh in her eyes.

"Arcadia being a land of ideals!" nodded Bellew.

"Ideals," said Mr. Cassilis