, gave her
a sign of warning. But the Englishman only lifted his eyebrows in a kind
of half-humorous concern.

"I don't think you'd like it, you know. It's a beastly place,--rocks
and sea,--worse than this, and half the time you can't see the mainland,
only a mile away. Really, you know, they oughtn't to have induced you to
take tickets there--those excursion-ticket chaps. They're jolly frauds.
It's no place for a stranger to go to."

"But there are the ruins of an old castle, the old seat of"--began the
astonished Miss Elsie; but she was again stopped by a significant glance
from the consul.

"I believe there was something of the kind there once--something
like your friends the cattle-stealers' castle over on that hillside,"
returned the Englishman; "but the stones were taken by the fishermen for
their cabins, and the walls were quite pulled down."

"How dared they do that?" said the young lady indignantly. "I call it
not only sacrilege, but stealing."

"It was defrauding the owner of the property; they might as well take
his money," said Mrs. Kirkby, in languid protest.

The smile which this outburst of proprietorial indignation brought to
the face of the consul lingered with the Englishman's reply.

"But it was only robbing the old robbers, don't you know, and they put
their spoils to better use than their old masters did; certainly to
more practical use than the owners do now, for the ruins are good for
nothing."

"But the hallowed associations--the picturesqueness!" continued Mrs.
Kirkby, with languid interest.

"The associations wouldn't be anything except to the family, you know;
and I should fancy they wouldn't be either hallowed or pleasant. As for
picturesqueness, the ruins are beastly ugly; weather-beaten instead of
being mellowed by time, you know, and bare where they ought to be hidden
by vines and moss. I can't make out why anybody sent you there, for you
Americans are rather particular about your sightseeing."

"We heard of them through a friend," said the consul, with assumed
carelessness. "Perhaps it's as good an excuse as any for a pleasant
journey."

"And very likely your friend mistook it for something else, or was
himself imposed upon," said the Englishman politely. "But you might not
think it so, and, after all," he added thoughtfully, "it's years since
I've seen it. I only meant that I could show you something better a
few miles from my place in Gloucestershire, and not quite so far