were
silvery with excess of dew, and the blue mists hung in the depths of
each tree for want of wind to blow them out. Somerset entered the
drive on foot, and when near the castle he observed in the gravel the
wheel-marks of the carriages that had conveyed the guests thither the
night before. There seemed to have been a large number, for the road
where newly repaired was quite cut up. Before going indoors he was
tempted to walk round to the wing in which Paula slept.

Rooks were cawing, sparrows were chattering there; but the blind of her
window was as closely drawn as if it were midnight. Probably she was
sound asleep, dreaming of the compliments which had been paid her by
her guests, and of the future triumphant pleasures that would follow in
their train. Reaching the outer stone stairs leading to the great hall
he found them shadowed by an awning brilliantly striped with red
and blue, within which rows of flowering plants in pots bordered the
pathway. She could not have made more preparation had the gathering been
a ball. He passed along the gallery in which his studio was situated,
entered the room, and seized a drawing-board to put into correct drawing
the sketch for the Greek court that he had struck out the night before,
thereby abandoning his art principles to please the whim of a girl. Dare
had not yet arrived, and after a time Somerset threw down his pencil and
leant back.

His eye fell upon something that moved. It was white, and lay in the
folding chair on the opposite side of the room. On near approach he
found it to be a fragment of swan's-down fanned into motion by his own
movements, and partially squeezed into the chink of the chair as though
by some person sitting on it.

None but a woman would have worn or brought that swan's-down into his
studio, and it made him reflect on the possible one. Nothing interrupted
his conjectures till ten o'clock, when Dare came. Then one of the
servants tapped at the door to know if Mr. Somerset had arrived.
Somerset asked if Miss Power wished to see him, and was informed that
she had only wished to know if he had come. Somerset sent a return
message that he had a design on the board which he should soon be glad
to submit to her, and the messenger departed.

'Fine doings here last night, sir,' said Dare, as he dusted his
T-square.

'O indeed!'

'A dinner-party, I hear; eighteen guests.'

'Ah,' said Somerset.

'The young lady was magnificent--sapphires and opa