e of countenance with which she passed it and the sudden lightening
of her tread (so instinctive that she was totally unconscious of it)
marked that door as one it would be my duty to enter if fate should yet
give me the opportunity. That it was the one in communication with the
Flower Parlor I felt satisfied, but in order to make assurance doubly
sure I resolved upon a tour through the shrubbery outside, that I might
compare the location of the window having the chipped blind with that of
this room, which was, as well as I could calculate, the third from the
rear on the left-hand side.

When, therefore, William called up to know if I was ready for my drive,
I answered back that I found myself very tired and would be glad to
exchange the pleasure he offered, for a visit to the stables.

This, as I expected, caused considerable comment and some disturbance.
They wanted me to repeat my experience of the day before and spend two
if not more hours of the morning out of the house. But I did not mean to
gratify them. Indeed I felt that my duty held me to the house, and was
so persistent in my wishes, or rather in my declaration of them, that
all opposition had to give way, even in the stubborn William.

"I thought you had a dread of dogs," was the final remark with which he
endeavored to turn me aside from my purpose. "I have three in the barn
and two in the stable, and they make a great fuss when I come around, I
assure you."

"Then they will have enough to do without noticing me," said I, with a
brazen assumption of courage sufficiently surprising if I had had any
real intention of invading a place so guarded. But I had not. I no more
meant to enter the stables than to jump off the housetop, but it was
necessary that I should start for them and make the start from the left
wing of the house.

How I managed the intractable William and led him as I did from bush to
bush and shrub to shrub, up and down the length of that interminable
facade of the left wing, would make an interesting story in itself. The
curiosity I showed in plants, even such plants as had survived the
neglect that had made a wilderness of this old-time garden; the
indifference which, contrary to all my habits, I persisted in
manifesting to every inconvenience I encountered in the way of
straightforward walking to any object I set my fancy upon examining; the
knowledge I exhibited, and the interest which I took it for granted he
felt in all I discovered