Ranger?"

"He is a great lord who hangs all persons who disturb the deer in this
Park."

"But why do they not go away?" said Sheila impatiently. "I have never
seen any deer so stupid. It is their own fault if they are disturbed:
why do they remain so near to people and to houses?"

"My dear child, if Bras wasn't here you would probably find some of
those deer coming up to see if you had any bits of sugar or pieces of
bread about your pockets."

"Then they are like sheep--they are not like deer," she said with
some contempt. "If I could only tell Bras that it is sheep he will be
looking at, he would not look any more. And so small they are! They
are as small as the roe, but they have horns as big as many of the
red-deer. Do people eat them?"

"I suppose so."

"And what will they cost?"

"I am sure I can't tell you."

"Are they as good as the roe or the big deer?"

"I don't know that, either. I don't think I ever ate fallow-deer.
But you know they are not kept here for that purpose. A great many
gentlemen in this country keep a lot of them in their parks merely to
look pretty. They cost a great deal more than they produce."

"They must eat up a great deal of fine grass," said Sheila almost
sorrowfully. "It is a beautiful ground for sheep--no rushes, no
peat-moss, only fine, good grass and dry land. I should like my papa
to see all this beautiful ground."

"I fancy he has seen it."

"Was my papa here?"

"I think he said so."

"And did he see those deer?"

"Doubtless."

"He never told me of them."

By this time they had pretty nearly got down to the little lake, and
Bras had been alternately coaxed and threatened into a quiescent mood.
Sheila evidently expected to hear a flapping of seafowls' wings when
they got near the margin, and looked all around for the first sudden
dart from the banks. But a dead silence prevailed, and as there were
neither fish nor birds to watch, she went along to a wooden bench and
sat down there, one of her companions on each hand. It was a pretty
scene that lay before her--the small stretch of water ruffled with the
wind, but showing a dash of blue sky here and there, the trees in the
enclosure beyond clad in their summer foliage, the smooth green sward
shining in the afternoon sunlight. Here, at least, was absolute quiet
after the roar of London; and it was somewhat wistfully that she asked
her husband how far this place was from her home, and whether, when he
was at wor