w and then a heron poised, or a rock pigeon flew by, between
the river and the cliff-top. The opposite bank was embowered in deep
green wood, and the place was very refreshing after the torrid bricks and
distressing odours of the July streets of London.

The path was narrow: there was room for only two abreast. Miss
Willoughby and Scremerston led the way, and were soon lost to sight by a
turn in the path. As for Lord Embleton, he certainly seemed to have
drunk of that fountain of youth about which the old French poet Pontus de
Tyard reports to us, and to be going back, not forward, in age. He
looked very neat, slim, and cool, but that could not be the only cause of
the miracle of rejuvenescence. Closely regarding his host in profile,
Logan remarked that he had shaved off his moustache and the little,
obsolete, iron-grey chin-tuft which, in moments of perplexity, he had
been wont to twiddle. Its loss was certainly a very great improvement to
the clean-cut features of this patrician.

'We are a very small party,' said Lord Embleton, 'only the Prince, my
daughter, Father Riccoboni, Miss Willoughby, my sister, Scremerston, and
you and I. Miss Willoughby came last week. In the mornings she and I
are busy with the manuscripts. We have found most interesting things.
When their plot failed, your ancestor and mine prepared a ship to start
for the Western seas and attack the treasure-ships of Spain. But peace
broke out, and they never achieved that adventure. Miss Willoughby is a
cousin well worth discovering, so intelligent, and so wonderfully
attractive.'

'So Scremerston seems to think,' was Logan's idea, for the further he and
the Earl advanced, the less, if possible, they saw of the pair in front
of them; indeed, neither was visible again till the party met before
dinner.

However, Logan only said that he had a great esteem for Miss Willoughby's
courage and industry through the trying years of poverty since she left
St. Ursula's.

'The Prince we have not seen very much of,' said the Earl, 'as is
natural; for you will be glad to know that everything seems most happily
arranged, except so far as the religious difficulty goes. As for Father
Riccoboni, he is a quiet intelligent man, who passes most of his time in
the library, but makes himself very agreeable at meals. And now here we
are arrived.'

They had reached the south side of the house--an eighteenth-century
building in the red sandstone of the distric