ng on. We can watch them the whole way up."

He opened the door into the south drawing-rooms; and through the open
windows there floated the distant strains of the village band.

"Canon, your arm," said Lady Belstone.

Lady Mary and her son had hastened out on to the terrace.

The old ladies paused in the doorway; they were particular in such
matters.

"I believe I take precedence, Georgina," said Lady Belstone,
apologetically.

"I am far from disputing it, Isabella," said Miss Crewys, drawing back
with great dignity. "You are the elder."

"Age does not count in these matters. I take precedence, as a married
woman. Will you bring up the rear, Georgina, as my poor admiral would
have said?"

Miss Crewys bestowed a parting toss of the head upon the doctor, and
followed her victorious sister.

The doctor laughed silently to himself, standing in the pretty shady
drawing-room; now gay with flowers, and chintz, and Dresden china.

"I wonder if she would not have been even more annoyed with my
presumption if I _had_ offered her my arm," he said to himself,
amusedly, "than she is offended by my neglect to do so?"

He did not follow the others into the blinding sunshine of the
terrace. He had had a long morning's work, and was hot and tired. He
looked at his watch.

"Past one o'clock; h'm! we are lucky if we get anything to eat before
half-past two. All the servants have run out, of course. No use
ringing for whisky and seltzer. All the better. But, at least, one can
rest."

The pleasantness of the room refreshed his spirit. The interior of his
own house in Brawnton was not much more enticing than the exterior.
The doctor had no time to devote to such matters. He sat down very
willingly in a big armchair, and enjoyed a moment's quiet in the
shade; glancing through the half-closed green shutters at the
brilliant picture without.

The top level of the terrace garden was carpeted with pattern beds of
heliotrope, and lobelia, and variegated foliage. Against the faint
blue-green of the opposite hill rose the grey stone urns on the
pillars of the balcony; and from the urns hung trailing ivy geraniums
with pink or scarlet blossom, making splashes of colour on the
background of grey distance. Round the pillars wound large blue
clematis, and white passion-flowers.

Lady Mary stood full in the sunshine, which lent once more the golden
glory of her vanished youth to her brown hair, and the dazzle of
new-fallen snow to h