lossoms which she had never seen before.
Mr. Carlyon, although desiring solitude, appreciated a beautiful and
cultivated one, and the orchard house was now becoming a very
comfortable bachelor's home.

The day was much cooler than it had been of late. There was a fresh
breeze though the sun shone. John Derringham wandered down to the apple
tree and thence to the gap, and through it and on into the park. His
walk was for pleasure, and aimless as to destination, and presently he
sat down under a low-spreading oak and looked at the house--La Sarthe
Chase. A beautiful view of it could be obtained from there, and it
interested him--and from that his thoughts came to Halcyone and her
strange, quaint little personality, and he stretched himself out and
putting his hands under his head he looked up into the dense foliage of
the tree above him--and there his eyes met two grave, quiet ones peering
down from a mass of green, and he saw slender brown legs drawn up on a
broad branch, and a scrap of blue cotton frock.

"Good morning," Halcyone said quite composedly, "don't make a noise,
please, or rustle--the mother doe is just coming out of the copse with
her new fawn."

"How on earth did you get up there?" he asked, surprised.

"I swung myself from the lower branch on the other side; it is quite
easy--would you like to come up, too? There is plenty of room--and then
we could be sure the doe would not see you and she might peep out again.
I do not wish to frighten her."

John Derringham rose leisurely and went to the further side of the oak,
where sure enough there was a drooping branch and he was soon up beside
her, dangling his long limbs as he sat in a fork.

"What an enchanting bower you have found," he said. "Away from all the
world."

"No indeed, that cannot be at this time of the year," she answered.
"See, there is a squirrel far up in the top and there are birds, and
look--down there at the roots there is a rabbit hole with such a family
in it. It is only in the winter you can be alone--and not even then, for
you know there are the moles even if you cannot see them."

"Creatures are interesting to watch, aren't they?" he said. "I have an
old place which I loved when I was a boy. It is let now because I am too
poor to live in it, but I used to like to prowl about in the early
mornings long ago."

"We are all very poor," said Halcyone simply, "but I am sorry for you
that you have to let strangers be in your house--t