at all manner of times," she said; "but I think I like
this time the best."

"You are not going any further, I suppose?"

"No; I thought of turning back now, and going home."

"I'll walk a little way with you if you will allow me?"

Of course she had no objection to make. They had walked in that place
often before, and it was a matter of certainty that as they did meet
they would walk together. He need hardly have asked her if she would
allow him to walk with her now.

So they turned and walked a little off the beaten track, and under the
trees. When they had walked a certain distance in one direction Victor
turned round and she turned with him, as if she were merely obeying his
signal of command. It has already been said more than once that Mr.
Heron always went on as if he were ever so much older than she, and
belonging indeed to a different stage of life. He bore himself as a man
of forty or thereabout might do with a young woman of Minola's age.

"How do you like Blanchet's book?" he asked abruptly.

"It is very beautiful, I suppose. It's a little too ornamental and
fantastic perhaps for my taste; but I suppose that is in keeping with
the style of the poems; and _he_ is delighted with the book."

"It has cost a great deal of money--much more than it ought to have
cost. I don't like the thing at all."

"But think of the joy given to the poet. It is surely not very dearly
bought at the price. I never knew of a man so happy."

"Yes, yes; that is all very well for him----"

"It is very well for me too, Mr. Heron--to be able to do a kindness for
any human creature. I dare say it has given me as much pleasure as it
has given him, and made me quite as proud too--and is not that
something to gain?"

"Still I can't help feeling uneasy about this thing. It has cost a heap
of money--much more than I ever supposed it would--and I seem as if I
had brought you into all the expense."

"How could that be, Mr. Heron? I expressly wished Mr. Blanchet to do as
he pleased; and he understood me exactly as I wished him to do. You had
nothing to do with it."

"Oh, yes! I had something to do with it; and then--excuse me--you are
rather young perhaps----"

"Perhaps I can't be expected to know my own mind; or ought not to be
trusted with the spending of my own money?"

"No, I didn't mean that; but you might not have known exactly what you
were being let in for; and it is a good deal of money for a girl to
pay."

"And in