rming that he felt
inclined to go down.

'If you do, perhaps Miss Power will order you up again, as a
trespasser,' said Charlotte De Stancy. 'You are one of the largest
shareholders in the railway, are you not, Paula?'

Miss Power did not reply.

'I suppose as the road is partly yours you might walk all the way to
London along the rails, if you wished, might you not, dear?' Charlotte
continued.

Paula smiled, and said, 'No, of course not.'

Somerset, feeling himself superfluous, raised his hat to his companions
as if he meant not to see them again for a while, and began to descend
by some steps cut in the earth; Miss De Stancy asked Mrs. Goodman to
accompany her to a barrow over the top of the tunnel; and they left the
carriage, Paula remaining alone.

Down Somerset plunged through the long grass, bushes, late summer
flowers, moths, and caterpillars, vexed with himself that he had come
there, since Paula was so inscrutable, and humming the notes of some
song he did not know. The tunnel that had seemed so small from the
surface was a vast archway when he reached its mouth, which emitted,
as a contrast to the sultry heat on the slopes of the cutting, a cool
breeze, that had travelled a mile underground from the other end. Far
away in the darkness of this silent subterranean corridor he could see
that other end as a mere speck of light.

When he had conscientiously admired the construction of the massive
archivault, and the majesty of its nude ungarnished walls, he looked up
the slope at the carriage; it was so small to the eye that it might
have been made for a performance by canaries; Paula's face being still
smaller, as she leaned back in her seat, idly looking down at him. There
seemed something roguish in her attitude of criticism, and to be no
longer the subject of her contemplation he entered the tunnel out of her
sight.

In the middle of the speck of light before him appeared a speck of
black; and then a shrill whistle, dulled by millions of tons of earth,
reached his ears from thence. It was what he had been on his guard
against all the time,--a passing train; and instead of taking the
trouble to come out of the tunnel he stepped into a recess, till the
train had rattled past and vanished onward round a curve.

Somerset still remained where he had placed himself, mentally balancing
science against art, the grandeur of this fine piece of construction
against that of the castle, and thinking whether Paul