. He should
tell her where to find Guy that she might warn him. Quickly she turned
away and hurried out of the yard and around the north L, beyond which
was the garden, laid out with ancient hedges and long beds of
old-fashioned flowers.

Now this same garden was the chief pride of the neighborhood, the more
especially that gardens were but seldom found attached to inns in those
days. Here there had been a partly successful attempt to imitate Italian
landscape gardening; but the elaborately arranged paths, beds, and
parterres, with their white statues and fountains, lost their
effectiveness closed in as they were by high walls of vine-covered
brick. It was rumored that once a stately peacock had here once flaunted
his gorgeous plumage, giving his name to the inn itself--but this legend
rested upon little real evidence.

When Phoebe reached the entrance to the main walk she stopped and
looked anxiously about her. Nowhere could she see or hear anyone. Sadly
disappointed, she moved slowly forward, glancing quickly to right and
left, still hoping that he whom she sought had not utterly departed.

She reached a small stone basin surmounted by a statue of Plenty, whose
inverted horn suggested a copious stream long since choked up. Behind
the fountain there was a stone bench with a high back. Peeping behind
this, Phoebe found that a second seat was placed beyond the back,
inviting a seclusion whose expected purpose was distinctly suggested by
a sly little Cupid on a pedestal, holding one forefinger to his smiling
lips.

At this moment Phoebe was conscious of a distant mumbling to her left,
and, glancing quickly in that direction, she saw a plainly dressed,
bareheaded man of medium height just turning into the main walk out of a
by-path, where he had been hidden from view by a thick hedge of privet.
His eyes were turned upon some slips of paper which he held in one hand.

Could this be he? Shakespeare! The immortal Prince of Poets!

To Mary Burton, the approach of a mere player would have given little
concern. But Phoebe Wise, better knowing his unrivalled rank, was
seized with a violent attack of diffidence, and in an instant she dodged
behind the stone seat and sat in hiding with a beating heart.

The steps of the new-comer slowly approached. Phoebe knew not whether
pleasure or a painful fear were stronger within her. Here was indeed the
culmination of her strange adventure! There, beyond the stone which
mercifully co