oven. Aubrey curled himself up in a corner and
went to sleep, but Leonard's look of oppressed resignation grieved
Ethel, and the blue blinds made him look so livid, that she was always
fancying him fainting, and then his shyness was dreadful--it was
impossible to elicit from him anything but 'No, thank you.'

He did nearly faint when they left the train; and while Aubrey was
eagerly devouring the produce of the refreshment room, had to lie on a
bench under Dr. Spencer's charge, for Ethel's approach only brought on
a dangerous spasm of politeness. How she should get on with him for a
month, passed her imagination.

There was a fresher breeze when they drove out of the station, up a
Dorset ridge of hill, steep, high, terraced and bleak; but it was slow
climbing up, and every one was baked and wearied before the summit was
gained, and the descent commenced. Even then, Ethel, sitting
backwards, could only see height develop above height, all green, and
scattered with sheep, or here and there an unfenced turnip-field, the
road stretching behind like a long white ribbon, and now and then
descending between steep chalk cuttings in slopes, down which the
carriage slowly scrooped on its drag, leaving a broad blue-flecked
trail. Dr. Spencer was asleep, hat off, and the wind lifting his snowy
locks, and she wished the others were; but Aubrey lamented on the heat
and the length, and Leonard leant back in his corner, past lamentation.

Down, down! The cuttings were becoming precipitous cliffs, the drag
made dismal groans; Aubrey, after a great slip forward, looking
injured, anchored himself, with his feet against the seat, by Ethel;
and Dr. Spencer was effectually wakened by an involuntary forward
plunge of his opposite neighbour. 'Can this be safe?' quoth Ethel;
'should not some of us get out?'

'Much you know of hills, you level landers!' was the answer; and just
then they were met and passed by four horses dragging up a stage coach,
after the fashion of a fly on a window-pane--a stage coach! delightful
to the old-world eyes of Dr. Spencer, recalling a faint memory to
Ethel, and presenting a perfect novelty to Aubrey.

Then came a sudden turn upon flat ground, and a short cry of wonder
broke from Aubrey. Ethel was sensible of a strange salt weedy smell,
new to her nostrils, but only saw the white-plastered, gray-roofed
houses through which they were driving; but, with another turn, the
buildings were only on one side-