ast.

"And now get your hat and trot up to the village with Lawrence.
Yes, I should like you to go tonight. It'll do you good. Give
you a breath of fresh air after your extra dose of sulphur. Yes,
you shall take Isabel. Then you'll be safe: I can't insult you
if you and Lawrence weren't alone. Now run along, I've had
enough emotions. But don't forget. Laura," he spoke thickly and
with effort, turning his head away as he pushed her from him
"yes, get out, I've had enough of you for the present--but don't
forget all the same that you're the one thing on earth that ever
is real to me."

Isabel was up a ladder in the orchard picking plums. Waving her
hand to Laura and Lawrence Hyde, she called out to them to look
the other way while she came down. It must be owned that neither
Laura nor Lawrence obeyed her, and they were rewarded, while she
felt about for the top rung, with an unimpeded view of two very
pretty legs. Lawrence really thought she was going to fall out
of the tree, but eventually she came safe to earth, and
approached holding out a basket full of glowing fruit. "Though
you don't deserve them," she said reproachfully, "because I could
feel you looking at me. I did think I should be safe at this
hour in the morning!"

"Do I see Val?" said Laura, screwing up her eyes to peer in
through the slats of the green jalousies. "I'll go and talk him
round, while you break the news to Miss Stafford. Such do's,
Isabel! You don't know what dissipations are in store for you, if
only Val will say yes." She like every one else elevated Val to
the parental dignity vice Mr. Stafford deposed.

"He's come in for some lunch. He'll love to have you watch him
eat," said Isabel. "What's it to be, Captain Hyde? A picnic?"

Isabel's imagination had never soared beyond a picnic. When
Lawrence unfolded the London scheme her eyes grew round with
astonishment and an awed silence fell on her. "Oh, it won't
happen," she said, when she had recovered sufficiently to reply
at all. "Nothing so angelically wonderful ever would happen to
me. I'm perfectly certain Val will say no. Now we've settled
that, you can tell me all about it, because of course you and
Laura will go in any case."

"But that's precisely what we can't do." Gently and imperceptibly
Lawrence impelled her through the rose archway into the kitchen
garden, where they were partly sheltered behind the walls of
lilacs, a little thinner than they had be