hewson married and carried off poor Helen's children, the
house has seemed so silent that except for you it would hardly be worth
while to get up in the morning. We can't spare you at present, dear
child."

"I know, mamma, and I shall never go till you can. The perfect thing
would be that we should all go together."

"Yes, if it were not for that dreadful voyage."

"Oh, the voyage is nothing," broke in the irrepressible Lionel, "you
just take some little pills; I forget the name of them, but they make
you safe not to be sick, and then you're across before you know it. The
ships are very comfortable,--electric bells, Welsh rabbits at bed-time,
and all that, you know."

"Fancy mamma with a Welsh rabbit at bed-time!--mamma, who cannot even
row down to Gallantry on the smoothest day without being upset! You must
bait your hook with something else, Lionel, if you hope to catch her."

"How would a trefoil of clover-leaves answer?" with a smile,--"she,
Geoff, and the boy."

"Ah, that dear baby. I wish I _could_ see the little fellow. He is so
pretty in his picture," sighed Mrs. Templestowe. "That bait would land
me if anything could, Lion. By the way, there are some little parcels
for them, which I thought perhaps you would make room for, Imogen."

"Yes, indeed, I'll carry anything with pleasure. Now I'm afraid we must
be going. Mother wants me to step down to Clovelly with a message for
the landlady of the New Inn, and I've set my heart upon walking once
more to Gallantry Bower. Can't you come with us, Isabel? It would be so
nice if you could, and it's my last chance."

"Of course I will. I'll be ready in five minutes, if you really can't
stay any longer."

The three friends were soon on their way, under a low-hung sky, which
looked near and threatening. The beautiful morning was fled.

"We had better cut down into the Hobby grounds and get under the trees,
for I think it's going to be wet," said Imogen.

The suggestion proved a wise one, for before they emerged from the
shelter of the woods it was raining smartly, and the girls were glad of
their water-proofs and umbrellas. Lionel, with hands in pockets, strode
on, disdaining what he was pleased to call "a little local shower."

"You should see how it pours in Colorado," he remarked. "That's worth
calling rain! Immense! Noah would feel perfectly at home in it!"

The tax of threepence each person, by which strangers are ingeniously
made to contribute to the "lo