ewly painted and
garnished with flowers for the season; and Toni looked across the river
with frank interest at the Cot, the Dinky House, the Mascot, and the
rest of the tiny shanties. She liked the houseboats, too, with their
gaily-striped awnings, their hanging baskets filled with gaudy pink
geraniums and bright lobelia. Their primly-curtained little windows
amused her; and in the evenings she would lure Owen out on to the
terrace to look down the river to where the Chinese lanterns hung on
their poles like globes of magic light against the darkening sky.

Toni and Jock had strolled about a quarter of a mile down the path when
they were brought sharply to a halt by the sound of a deep bark from the
other side of the water; and looking across they found they were not the
only waking creatures in this apparently sleeping world.

In one of the little gardens opposite to where they stood were a couple
of friends like themselves; but in this case the human being was a man
in his shirt sleeves, and the canine was a singularly beautiful white
wolfhound, who stood, at the moment, barking defiance at the intruders
on the opposite bank.

Jock, whose natural pugnacity was always easily aroused, returned the
compliment with the most evident sincerity; but the Borzoi, having flung
down the gage of battle and asserted her dignity, retired gracefully
from the contest, and walking daintily up to her master rose and placed
her slender paws on his shoulders, an action which said plainly that
honour was satisfied.

The animal was so striking-looking, from her long, graceful head to her
plumy tail, that Toni could not resist a second look; and the dog's
master had a good view of the girl whom he guessed to be the young
mistress of Greenriver, the house which he had often admired as he
passed by in his boat during the summer days.

As she stood, gazing almost childishly across the intervening water, she
looked barely more than a schoolgirl; and her short skirt and simple
white blouse aided the illusion. It was only the sight of the coils of
black hair which bound her head, and the gleam of the gold wedding-ring
on her finger, which placed her definitely in the category of womanhood;
and the man who watched her felt a strange sensation of something like
pity for the girl launched so early on the sea of matrimony, a sea whose
perils he, of all men, had cause to dread.

But suddenly Toni became aware of the indecorousness of her conduc