ive boy, and
adjured St. John Hirst to dismount too. Their example was followed by
those who felt the need of stretching.

"I don't see any need to get off," said Miss Allan to Mrs. Elliot just
behind her, "considering the difficulty I had getting on."

"These little donkeys stand anything, _n'est-ce_ _pas_?" Mrs. Elliot
addressed the guide, who obligingly bowed his head.

"Flowers," said Helen, stooping to pick the lovely little bright flowers
which grew separately here and there. "You pinch their leaves and then
they smell," she said, laying one on Miss Allan's knee.

"Haven't we met before?" asked Miss Allan, looking at her.

"I was taking it for granted," Helen laughed, for in the confusion of
meeting they had not been introduced.

"How sensible!" chirped Mrs. Elliot. "That's just what one would always
like--only unfortunately it's not possible." "Not possible?" said Helen.
"Everything's possible. Who knows what mayn't happen before night-fall?"
she continued, mocking the poor lady's timidity, who depended implicitly
upon one thing following another that the mere glimpse of a world
where dinner could be disregarded, or the table moved one inch from its
accustomed place, filled her with fears for her own stability.

Higher and higher they went, becoming separated from the world. The
world, when they turned to look back, flattened itself out, and was
marked with squares of thin green and grey.

"Towns are very small," Rachel remarked, obscuring the whole of Santa
Marina and its suburbs with one hand. The sea filled in all the angles
of the coast smoothly, breaking in a white frill, and here and there
ships were set firmly in the blue. The sea was stained with purple and
green blots, and there was a glittering line upon the rim where it met
the sky. The air was very clear and silent save for the sharp noise of
grasshoppers and the hum of bees, which sounded loud in the ear as they
shot past and vanished. The party halted and sat for a time in a quarry
on the hillside.

"Amazingly clear," exclaimed St. John, identifying one cleft in the land
after another.

Evelyn M. sat beside him, propping her chin on her hand. She surveyed
the view with a certain look of triumph.

"D'you think Garibaldi was ever up here?" she asked Mr. Hirst. Oh, if
she had been his bride! If, instead of a picnic party, this was a party
of patriots, and she, red-shirted like the rest, had lain among grim
men, flat on the turf, aiming her