solitary?"

Sir Oliver laughed. "You may include man. The answer is the same, and
simple: the strong of the earth feed on the weak, and it takes all the
weaklings to make blood for the few."

She mused; but when she spoke again it was not to dispute with him.
"You say they look over the sea from aloft there. Might we have sight
of it from the top of the hill?"

"Perhaps. There is plenty of time to make sure before the coach
overtakes us--though I warn you it will be risky."

"I am not afraid."

They cantered off gaily, plunged into the woods and breasted the slope,
Sir Oliver leading and threading his way through the undergrowth.
By-and-by they came to the bed of a torrent and followed it up, the
horses picking their steps upon the flat boulders between which the
water trickled. Some of these boulders were slimed and slippery, and
twice Sir Oliver reached out a hand and hauled the mare firmly on to her
quarters.

The belt of crags did not run completely around the hill. At the back
of it, after a scramble out of the gully, they came on a slope of good
turf, and so cantered easily to the summit.

Ruth gave a little cry of delight, and followed it up with a yet smaller
one of disappointment. The country lay spread at her feet like a vast
amphitheatre, ringed with wooded hills. Across the plain they encircled
a river ran in loops, and from the crag at the edge of which she stood a
streamlet emerged and took a brave leap down the hill to join it.

"But where is the sea?"

"That small hill yonder must hide it. You see it, with its line of
elms? If those trees were down, we should see the Atlantic for a
certainty. If you like the spot otherwise, I will have them removed."

He said it seriously; but of course she took it for granted that he
spoke in jest, albeit the jest puzzled her a little. Indeed when she
glanced up at him he was smiling, with his eyes on the distant
landscape.

"The mountain too," he added, "if the trees will not suffice. Though
not by faith, it shall be removed."

Chapter X.

THREE LADIES.

"You may smoke," said Dicky politely, setting down his glass.

"Thank you," answered Mr. Hanmer. "But are you sure? In my experience
of houses there's always some one that objects."

Dicky lifted his chin. "We call this the nursery because it has always
been the nursery. But I do what I like here."

Mr. Hanmer had accepted the boy's invitation to pay him a visit ashore
a