ons in other parts of the shrubberies it was
constructed of wood, the interstices between the framing being filled up
with short billets of fir nailed diagonally. Dare, even when without a
settled plan in his head, could arrange for probabilities; and wrenching
out one of the billets he looked inside. It seemed to be a simple oblong
apartment, fitted up with ropes, with a little dressing-closet at one
end, and lighted by a skylight or lantern in the roof. Dare replaced the
wood and went on his way.

Havill was smoking on his doorstep when Dare passed up the street. He
held up his hand.

'Since you have been gone,' said the architect, 'I've hit upon something
that may help you in exhibiting your lady to your gentleman. In the
summer I had orders to design a gymnasium for her, which I did; and they
say she is very clever on the ropes and bars. Now--'

'I've discovered it. I shall contrive for him to see her there on the
first wet morning, which is when she practises. What made her think of
it?'

'As you may have heard, she holds advanced views on social and other
matters; and in those on the higher education of women she is very
strong, talking a good deal about the physical training of the Greeks,
whom she adores, or did. Every philosopher and man of science who
ventilates his theories in the monthly reviews has a devout listener in
her; and this subject of the physical development of her sex has had its
turn with other things in her mind. So she had the place built on her
very first arrival, according to the latest lights on athletics, and in
imitation of those at the new colleges for women.'

'How deuced clever of the girl! She means to live to be a hundred!'

VII.

The wet day arrived with all the promptness that might have been
expected of it in this land of rains and mists. The alder bushes behind
the gymnasium dripped monotonously leaf upon leaf, added to this being
the purl of the shallow stream a little way off, producing a sense of
satiety in watery sounds. Though there was drizzle in the open meads,
the rain here in the thicket was comparatively slight, and two men with
fishing tackle who stood beneath one of the larger bushes found its
boughs a sufficient shelter.

'We may as well walk home again as study nature here, Willy,' said
the taller and elder of the twain. 'I feared it would continue when we
started. The magnificent sport you speak of must rest for to-day.'

The other looked at his watc