ughter when she
heard laughter and some Danish exclamations on the other side of the
thick hedge of hornbeam.

Elinor pulled herself together.

And it was Tage, Tage and Kastager, a wholesale merchant from
Copenhagen, with his sister and daughter; Mrs. Kastager lay ill at home
in the hotel.

Mrs. Fonss and Elinor made room for the two ladies; the men tried for
a moment to converse standing, but were lured by the low wall of
stone which surrounded the spot. They sat there and said only what was
absolutely necessary, for the newcomers were tired from a little railway
excursion they had taken into the Provence with its blooming roses.

"Hello!" cried Tage, striking his light trousers with the flat of his
hand, "look!"

They looked.

Out in the brown landscape appeared a cloud of dust, over it a mantle
of dust, and between the two they caught sight of a horse. "That's
the Englishman, I told you about, who came the other day," said Tage,
turning toward his mother.

"Did you ever see any one ride like that?" he asked, turning toward
Kastager, "he reminds me of a gaucho."

"Mazeppa?" said Kastager, questioningly.

The horseman disappeared.

Then they all rose, and set out for the hotel.

They had met the Kastagers in Belfort, and since they were pursuing the
same itinerary through southern France and along the Riviera, they for
the time being traveled together. Here in Avignon both families had made
a halt; Kastager because his wife had developed a varicose vein, the
Fonss' because Elinor obviously needed a rest.

Tage was delighted at this living together. Day by day he fell more and
more incurably in love with the pretty Ida Kastager. Mrs. Fonss did not
especially like this. Though Tage was very self-reliant and mature for
his age, there was no reason for a hasty engagement--and there was
Mr. Kastager! Ida was a splendid little girl, Mrs. Kastager was a very
well-bred woman of excellent family, and Kastager himself was capable,
rich, and honest, but there was a hint of the absurd about him. A smile
came upon people's lips and a twinkle into their eyes when any one
mentioned Mr. Kastager.

The reason for this was that he was full of fire and given to
extraordinary enthusiasms; he was frankly ingenuous, boisterous, and
communicative, and nowadays it requires a great deal of tact to be
lavish with enthusiasm. But Mrs. Fonss could not bear the thought that
Tage's father-in-law should be mentioned with a twinkle