man," she said softly, "and
I like him--I like him very much;" but she sighed a little heavily as
she turned away.

Meanwhile Malcolm was saying to himself in his whimsical way, "It is my
destiny--is it not written in the book of fate? The Parcae Sisters
three have willed it so. Good heavens, what an enigma life is! Some
winged insect whirling in a cyclone would have as much chance of
escaping its doom as a human being under such circumstances." Then he
stopped, and looked with blank, unseeing eyes down the slanting fir
avenue. "It is a mystery," he went on--"the very mystery of mysteries;
the Sphinx is nothing to it. A month ago we were strangers--I neither
knew nor cared that such a person as Elizabeth Templeton existed; and a
week--a little cycle of seven or eight nights and days--has wrought
this wondrous change. Am I the same man? Is this the solid earth on
which I am walking?" And then he gave an odd sort of laugh, which
seemed to hurt him. "My God," he muttered, "how I love this woman!" and
his head was bowed as he walked on.

The following afternoon, when Malcolm returned from his charitable
errand to Todmorden's Lane, he saw the Keston family grouped on the
shady patch of lawn in the front garden. Verity, who had Babs in her
arms, flew to meet him; but Amias merely waved his pipe and grunted in
an amicable fashion.

"Oh, how tired and dusty you look!" exclaimed Verity, in the pretty,
maternal way that always sat so quaintly on her. "Look at him, Amias; I
do believe he has walked all those miles from Earlsfield."

"Yea-Verily, you are right, child," returned the giant placidly; and
then Verity put down Babs on the grass to sprawl among the daisies.

"Sit down," she said, pushing Malcolm with her tiny hands into a big
hammock chair; "I am going to make you some fresh tea--iced lemonade is
out of the question;" and then she flitted into the house on her usual
errand of "hunting the Snark."

Malcolm was certainly tired; he had been unable to get a fly at
Earlsfield, and the long climb in the heat had rather taken it out of
him, so he was well content to lie back in his lounge and let Verity
wait on him.

"We have had visitors," she observed presently; then Malcolm looked up
quickly.

"The ladies from the Wood House," she continued. "They were here for
quite an hour. You are right, Mr. Herrick, the eldest Miss Templeton is
a perfect darling. Amias was just saying as you turned the corner that
he would li