ow you directly. I want
to speak to Forbes about the mare."

Malcolm did as he was told, and entered the long, softly-lighted hall.
Perhaps the sunshine had dazzled his eyes a little, but at that instant
he thought it was a young girl who was advancing to meet him. The
figure was so rounded and graceful, and there was such alertness and
youthfulness in the bearing; but as she came closer to him he saw that
her hair was quite gray.

"I am very pleased indeed to see you, Mr. Herrick," she observed in a
pleasant voice. "We have heard so much of you from Cedric that you seem
quite an old friend. I am afraid you will find us very quiet, homely
people; but I daresay Cedric will have prepared you for that. He
grumbles dreadfully, poor boy, at our old-fashioned, humdrum ways."

"I can assure you, Miss Templeton, that the quiet will be very restful
after the turmoil of town," returned Malcolm seriously; "and, as far as
I can judge at present, Staplegrove seems a perfect paradise;" and then
Miss Templeton smiled and led the way into a pleasant, cosy-looking
drawing-room, with three windows opening on to a terrace, below which
lay a charming garden. On this side of the house the wood ended
abruptly; but in the distance, beyond a rose arch, Malcolm caught sight
of a little rustic bridge which seemed to span a sort of green ravine.

Miss Templeton had taken her place at the tea-table; but Malcolm did
not at once follow her. "After all, town has its drawbacks," he said
half to himself; but Miss Templeton understood him.

"You mean one has to do without gardens there," she returned. "That
would never suit either my sister or myself; our garden is very dear to
us. You have not seen all its beauties yet, Mr. Herrick," she continued
brightly; "it is full of surprises. When I have given you some tea we
will go in search of my sister. She is sure to be down at the Pool--we
call it Ophelia's Pool, because it reminds us so of a picture we have
seen in the Royal Academy. It is our favourite haunt on a hot summer's
afternoon."

Malcolm made an appropriate reply, and for the next few minutes they
talked pleasantly of Staplegrove, and the short cut that led to
Rotherwood church and village; and then Cedric joined them, and began
chatting volubly to his sister; and Malcolm drank his tea and watched
them both. He owned to Anna afterwards that Dinah Templeton was a
revelation to him, and that all his preconceived notions of her fell as
flat