ily was tucked
into her belt. To both young men she seemed very beautiful, and radiant
as the spring morning.

"You aren't superstitious, engaging a man with a squint," said Nevill.

"Of course not," she laughed. "As if harm could come to me because the
poor man's so homely! I engaged him because he was the worst looking,
and nobody else seemed to want him."

They escorted her indoors to Lady MacGregor, and Stephen wondered if she
would be afraid of the elderly fairy with the face of a child and the
manner of an autocrat. But she was not in the least shy; and indeed
Stephen could hardly picture the girl as being self-conscious in any
circumstances. Lady MacGregor took her in with one look; white hat, red
hair, blue eyes, lily at belt, simple frock and all, and--somewhat to
Stephen's surprise, because she was to him a new type of old
lady--decided to be charmed with Miss Ray.

Victoria's naive admiration of the house and gardens delighted her host
and hostess. She could not be too much astonished at its wonders to
please them, and, both being thoroughbred, they liked her the better
for saying frankly that she was unused to beautiful houses. "You can't
think what this is like after school in Potterston and cheap
boarding-houses in New York and London," she said, laughing when the
others laughed.

Stephen was longing to see her in the lily-garden, which, to his mind,
might have been made for her; and after luncheon he asked Lady MacGregor
if he and Nevill might show it to Miss Ray.

The garden lay to the east, and as it was shadowed by the house in the
afternoon, it would not be too hot.

"Perhaps you won't mind taking her yourself," said the elderly fairy.
"Just for a few wee minutes I want Nevill. He is to tell me about
accepting or refusing some invitations. I'll send him to you soon."

Stephen was ashamed of the gladness with which he could not help hearing
this proposal. He had nothing to say to the girl which he might not say
before Nevill, or even before Lady MacGregor, yet he had been feeling
cheated because he could not be alone with Victoria, as on the boat.

"Gather Miss Ray as many lilies as she can carry away," were Nevill's
parting instructions. And it was exactly what Stephen had wished for. He
wanted to give her something beautiful and appropriate, something he
could give with his own hands. And he longed to see her holding masses
of white lilies to her breast, as she walked all white in the white