a practical scientific lesson on the
momentum of falling bodies; in illustration of which Harrie declared he
would certainly throw little Brian out of his arms, in a fit of absence
of mind, thoroughly believing the child was a stone.

At last, when their excitement had fairly worn itself out, and even Mrs.
Dugdale's energetic liveliness had come to a dead stop in consequence
of a fit of sleepiness and crossness on the part of Brian--Agatha roamed
about the old castle by herself; creeping into all the queer nooks with
a childish pleasure, mounting impassable walls so as to find the highest
point of view. She always had a great delight in climbing, and in
feeling herself at the top of everything.

It was such a strange afternoon too, grey, soft, warm, the sun having
long gone in and left an atmosphere of pleasant cloudiness, tender and
dim, the shadowing over of a fading day, which nevertheless foretells no
rain, but often indicates a beautiful day to-morrow. Somehow or other,
it made Agatha think of Miss Valery; nor was she surprised when,
as suddenly as if she had dropped out of the sky, Anne was seen
approaching.

"Let me help you up these stones. How good of you to come, and how tired
you seem!"

"Oh no, I shall be rested in a minute. But I am not quite so young as
you, my dear."

She came up and leaned against the ivy-wall that Agatha had climbed,
which was on the opposite side of the hill to the bowling-green, the
gathering-spot of the little party. It was a nook of thorough solitude
and desolation, nothing being visible from it but the widely extended
flat of country, looking seaward, though the sea itself was not in view.

"Why did you climb so high?" said Agatha, as, earnestly regarding her
friend, she perceived more than ever before the difference in their
years, and felt strongly tempted to wrap her strong young arms round
Miss Valery's waist, and support her with even a daughter's care.

"I shall be well presently," Anne repeated, with cheerfulness. "I have
not climbed up to this spot for many years. I thought I would like to
come here once again."

She sat down on a flat stone raised upon two others.

"What a comfortable seat! It might have been made on purpose for you."

"So it was--long ago. No one has disturbed it since. Come, my dear."

She drew Agatha beside her--there was just room for two; and they sat in
silence, looking at the view, except that Agatha sometimes cast her eyes
about rathe