about us and our faults? I gathered, from what
you said last night at dinner, that you have never been in England but
once, for a month, when you were almost a child."

"The rarest specimens come abroad," and a dimple showed in her left
cheek, "and I read about you in your best novels--even your authors
unconsciously give you away and show your selfishness and arrogance and
self-satisfaction."

"Shocking brutes, aren't we?"

"Perfectly."

Then they both laughed, and Sabine suggested it was time they returned
to luncheon.

"It is quite two miles from here, and Mr. Cloudwater, although the
kindest dear old gentleman, begins to get hungry at one o'clock."

So they turned and sauntered downwards through the lovely green woods,
with the warm hum of insects and the soft summer, glancing sunshine. And
all of you who know the beauties of Carlsbad, or indeed any other of
those Bohemian spas, can just picture how agreeable was their walk, and
how conducive to amiable discussion and the acceleration of friendship.
Henry tried to get her to tell him some more of the secrets of her
countrywomen, but she would not be serious. She was in a merry mood, and
turned the fire into the enemy's camp, making him disclose the ways of
Englishmen.

"I believe you like us as a rule because we are such casual creatures!"
he said at last, "rather indifferent about _petits soins_, and apt to
seize what we desire, or take it for granted."

A sudden shadow came into her face which puzzled him, and she did not
answer, but went on to talk of Brittany and the place which she had
bought. Heronac--just a weird castle perched right upon a rock above a
fishing village, with the sea dashing at its base and the spray rising
right to her sitting-room windows.

"I have to go across a causeway to my garden upon the main land--and
when it is very rough, I get soaking wet--it is the wildest place you
ever saw."

"What on earth made you select it?" Lord Fordyce asked. "You, who look
like a fresh rose, to choose a grim brigand's stronghold as a
residence!"

"It suited my mood on the day I first saw it--and I bought it the
following week. I make up my mind in a minute as to what I want."

"You must let me motor past and look at it," he pleaded, "and when my
twenty-one days of drinking this uninteresting water is up, I intend
going back in my car to Paris, and from there down to see Mont St.
Michel."

"You shall not only look at it--you may even come