ing after the stranger in the hope that
he would turn his head, and nod or wave to him in friendly farewell, but
he did neither. Ger gave a little sigh, and trotted up the drive towards
home.

Outside the gates Eloquent paused and looked back at them. Brought from
Verona generations ago, they were a perfect example of a perfect period.
Richly decorative, various in design, light and flowing in form, the
delicate curves broke into actual leafage, sweeping and free as nature's
own. The Ffolliots were proud of their gates.

He gazed at them admiringly, and then, like Ger, he sighed.

"Why," he muttered, "why should they have had all this always? I wonder
if it's the constant passing through gates like this that helps to make
them what they are."

CHAPTER IV

REFLECTION AND ENLIGHTENMENT

Eloquent found that M. B. Ffolliot had not deceived him as to the
nearness of the village. A few yards to the left, over the bridge, and
the long, irregular street lay in front of him; the river on one side;
the houses, various in size and shape, but alike in one respect, that
the most modern of them was over two hundred years old. He knew that
his aunt's house was at the very end of the street and furthest from
the bridge, and that Redmarley village was nearly a mile in length.
Yet he did not hurry. He walked very slowly in the middle of the muddy
road, resolved to marshal and tabulate his impressions as was his
orderly wont.

But in this instance his impressions refused to conform to either
process, and remained mutinously chaotic.

He found that, in thinking of Mary, he unconsciously called her "that
girl," whereas such maidens as he hitherto had encountered were always
"young ladies." He didn't know many "young ladies," but those he did
know he there and then called into review and compared with Mary
Ffolliot.

They were all of them much better dressed, he was certain of that. But
he was equally assured that not one of them would have forborne to
laugh at his plight, as he sat abject and ridiculous in the very
largest puddle in Redmarley woods.

She had not laughed.

And would any one of these well-dressed young ladies (Eloquent took
into account that it was Sunday) have held out helping hands to a total
stranger with such absolute simplicity, so entirely as a matter of
course? not as a young woman to a young man, but as one fellow-creature
to another who had, literally, in this instance, fallen upon evil