spoke a fashion some time since passed by among those who
were particular as to such matters. The effect was not assisted by a
pork-pie hat of black straw trimmed with green feathers, a pink ribbon
from which depended a silver locket, a belt of deep magenta-red, yellow
gloves, and an umbrella bright navy-blue in tint. She had over her arm a
purplish water-proof, and her thick, solid boots could defy the mud of
her native shire.

"Lion! Lion!" she called again; and this time a tall young fellow
responded, running rapidly down the path to join her. He was two years
her junior, vigorous, alert, and boyish, with a fresh skin, and tawny,
waving hair like her own.

"How long you have been!" she cried reproachfully.

"Grieved to have kept you, Miss," was the reply. "You see, things went
contrairy-like. The grease got all over me when I was cleaning the guns,
and cold water wouldn't take it off, and that old Saunders took his time
about bringing the can of hot, till at last I rushed down and fetched it
up myself from the copper. You should have seen cook's face! 'Fancy,
Master Lionel,' says she, 'coming yourself for 'ot water!' I tell you,
Moggy, Saunders is past his usefulness. He's a regular duffer--a gump."

"There's another American expression. Saunders is a most respectable
man, I'm sure, and has been in the family thirty-one years. Of course he
has a good deal to do just now, with the packing and all. Now, Lion, we
shall have to walk smartly if we're to get there at half-after."

"All right. Here goes for a spin, then."

The brother and sister walked rapidly on down the winding road, in the
half-shadow of the bordering hedges. Real Devonshire hedge-rows they
were, than which are none lovelier in England, rising eight and ten feet
overhead on either side, and topped with delicate, flickering birch and
ash boughs blowing in the fresh wind. Below were thick growths of
hawthorn, white and pink, and wild white roses in full flower
interspersed with maple tips as red as blood, the whole interlaced and
held together with thick withes and tangles of ivy, briony, and
travellers' joy. Beneath them the ground was strewn with
flowers,--violets, and king-cups, poppies, red campions, and blue
iris,--while tall spikes of rose-colored foxgloves rose from among ranks
of massed ferns, brake, hart's-tongue, and maiden's-hair, with here and
there a splendid growth of Osmund Royal. To sight and smell, the
hedge-rows were equally delight