nder the trees. In the
far distance, the stubble fields stretched like patches of gold to ridges
of pine-topped hills, and beyond to the distant sea. The breakfast table
at which his wife and daughter were seated was arranged on the broad grey
stone terrace, and, as he slowly approached, it seemed like an oasis of
flowers and fruit and silver. A footman stood discreetly in the
background. Half a dozen dogs of various breeds came trotting forward to
meet him. His wife, still beautiful notwithstanding her forty-five years,
had turned her pleasant face towards him, and Ella, whom a great many
Society papers had singled out as being one of the most beautiful
debutantes of the season, was welcoming him with her usual lazy but wholly
good-humoured smile.

"Daddy, your habits are getting positively disgraceful!" she exclaimed.
"Mother and I have nearly finished--and our share of the post-bag is most
uninteresting. Please come and sit down, tell us where you are going to
shoot, and whether you've had any letters this morning?"

Lord Ashleigh loitered for a moment to raise the covers from the dishes
upon a side table. Afterwards he seated himself in the chair which the
servant was holding for him.

"I am going out for an hour or two with Fitzgerald," he announced.
"Partridges are scarcely worth shooting yet but he has arranged a few
drives over the hills. As for my being late--well, that has something to
do with you, young lady."

Ella looked at him with a sudden seriousness in her great eyes.

"Daddy, you've heard something!"

Lord Ashleigh pulled a bundle of letters from his pocket.

"I have," he admitted.

"Quick!" Ella begged. "Tell us all about it? Don't sit there, dad, looking
so stolid. Can't you see I am dying to hear? Quick, please!"

Her father smiled, glanced for a moment at the plate which had been passed
to him from the side table, approved of it and stretched out his hand for
his cup.

"I heard this morning," he said, "from your friend Delarey. He went into
the matter very fully. You shall read his letter presently. The sum and
substance of it all, however, is that for the first year of your musical
training he advises--where do you think?"

"Dresden," Lady Ashleigh suggested.

"Munich? Paris?" Ella put in breathlessly.

"All wrong," Lord Ashleigh declared. "New York!"

There was a momentary silence. Ella's eyes were sparkling. Her mother's
face had fallen.

"New York!" Ella murmured. "There is w