replied. "It was my fault, for being so heedless.
But I can not afford another misadventure to-day. Will you take great
care of me?"

Her soft, caressing tones thrilled through Royston's veins till the
blood mounted to his forehead; but he made no answer in words, only
looking up earnestly into her face with his rare smile.

I have tried throughout to avoid inflicting on you a dialogue that does
not bear in some way on the incidents of our tale; on this principle we
will not record the conversation that occupied those two till they
reached the crown of the pass. It was probably interesting to _them_,
for it was long before either forgot a word that was spoken. But the
imagination or the memory of the reader will doubtless fill up a better
fancy-sketch than the one omitted here.

There was a general halt on the brow of the hill. Indeed the view was
worth a pause. From below their feet the tract of low woodland rolled
right down to the edge of the sea, like a broad tossing river, swelling
into great billows of gray or dark green, where the taller olives or
fir-trees grew, and broken here and there with islets of many-colored
stone. With the rest came up the chaplain, who had recovered by this
time his breath, and, to a certain extent, his equanimity. While the
others stood silent, he saw one of those openings for improving the
occasion professionally of which he was ever so ready to avail himself.
So, casting his hand abroad theatrically, he declaimed,

How glorious are thy works, Parent of Good!

The words came oozing out in the oiliest of his unctuous tones; and the
elocutionist's expansive glance fell first on the landscape
patronizingly, then on the by-standers encouragingly. It was as though
he said, "You may fall to, and admire now. I have asked a blessing."
Nothing more occurred worthy of note till they reached their destination
in safety.

Of course, "there never was such a place for a picnic;" but, as that has
been said of about three hundred different spots in every civilized
country of Europe, it is certainly not worth while describing this
particular one. The luncheon went on very much as such things always do
when the arrangements are perfect, the commissariat unexceptionable, and
the guests hungry and happy.

Mr. Fullarton, however, applied himself so assiduously to Champagne-cup
that his sober-minded helpmate (the only person who took much notice of
his proceedings) was filled with an uncomfortab