sir. We were beginning to wonder if you were coming to-day."

"Yes--started rather late." Owen gave her hand a friendly shake. "But we
shan't have to go back just yet. I want to have a chat with you by and
bye, Mrs. Blades. This young lady, Miss Gibbs, has kindly come down to
help me with some work."

"I'm sure the young lady is very welcome," was Mrs. Blades'
old-fashioned reply. "Shan't I make you a cup o' tea, sir, first of
all?"

"Well, a cup of tea would be nice ... but I think, if Miss Gibbs isn't
tired, we'll get on with our work first, and then we'll enjoy it better.
Eh, Miss Gibbs?"

Miss Gibbs agreed; and five minutes later she was installed, with her
typewriter, in the library. Owen busied himself, for a few moments, at
the shelves, searching for the books he wanted; and Toni spent the time
in gazing round her, wonder, admiration and awe mingling in her gaze.

The room was large and lofty and the big mullioned windows looked out
upon a beautiful terrace, bordered with wallflowers, jonquils, and
masses of dancing daffodils. The grass, smooth as velvet, led to a stone
balustrade, beyond which lay the river, sparkling in the sunshine,
whilst beyond that again were green fields, broken here and there by
clumps of majestic trees, the fields in their turn leading to a range of
distant, misty, blue hills.

The room itself was second only in interest to the view. In all her life
Toni had never entered such a room--had never imagined, indeed, that
private houses boasted such apartments.

The furniture was all of dark-green leather--the big saddle-bag chairs,
the low divan and the smaller chairs all being upholstered in the same
material, while the wall was distempered a lighter shade of green, and
the carpet was of a darker tone. In one of the deep window embrasures
was a bureau, of just the right height to allow anyone sitting before it
to enjoy the prospect without; while the table at which Toni sat was a
large, heavy affair, evidently intended for serious work.

But the generally sombre tone of the room formed an excellent background
for the books which lined its walls. Shelf after shelf of them rose from
the floor, almost to the ceiling; and since many were bound in soft,
rich colours, they struck a delightful note in the rather dusky whole.

There were books bound in leather, dark-brown calf, soft red or blue
morocco; richly-tooled volumes, slim books clothed in tan or purple
suede, gay with gold edges