emember?--and then you were going to have a fountain in the
middle, and statues like those in the British Museum.'

'I did say so,' remarked Paula, pulling the leaves from a young
sycamore-tree that had sprung up between the joints of the paving.

From the spot where they sat they could see over the roofs the upper
part of the great tower wherein Somerset had met with his misadventure.
The tower stood boldly up in the sun, and from one of the slits in the
corner something white waved in the breeze.

'What can that be?' said Charlotte. 'Is it the fluff of owls, or a
handkerchief?'

'It is my handkerchief,' Somerset answered. 'I fixed it there with a
stone to attract attention, and forgot to take it away.'

All three looked up at the handkerchief with interest. 'Why did you want
to attract attention?' said Paula.

'O, I fell into the turret; but I got out very easily.'

'O Paula,' said Charlotte, turning to her friend, 'that must be the
place where the man fell in, years ago, and was starved to death!'

'Starved to death?' said Paula.

'They say so. O Mr. Somerset, what an escape!' And Charlotte De Stancy
walked away to a point from which she could get a better view of the
treacherous turret.

'Whom did you think to attract?' asked Paula, after a pause.

'I thought you might see it.'

'Me personally?' And, blushing faintly, her eyes rested upon him.

'I hoped for anybody. I thought of you,' said Somerset.

She did not continue. In a moment she arose and went across to Miss
De Stancy. 'Don't YOU go falling down and becoming a skeleton,'
she said--Somerset overheard the words, though Paula was unaware of
it--after which she clasped her fingers behind Charlotte's neck, and
smiled tenderly in her face.

It seemed to be quite unconsciously done, and Somerset thought it a
very beautiful action. Presently Paula returned to him and said, 'Mr.
Somerset, I think we have had enough architecture for to-day.'

The two women then wished him good-morning and went away. Somerset,
feeling that he had now every reason for prowling about the castle,
remained near the spot, endeavouring to evolve some plan of
procedure for the project entertained by the beautiful owner of those
weather-scathed walls. But for a long time the mental perspective of his
new position so excited the emotional side of his nature that he could
not concentrate it on feet and inches. As Paula's architect (supposing
Havill not to be admitted as a com