man's. I think that I knew very
well who it was that came so softly down the cone-strewn path.

We faced one another with little of the mask of surprise. She came like
a shadow, flitting between the slender tree trunks out into the
sunshine, where for a moment she seemed wan and white. Her dark eyes
flashed a greeting at me. I stood cap in hand before her. It was the
first time we had met since I had taken up my abode at the "Brand."

"Good-morning, Mr. Ducaine," she said. "You need not look at me as
though I were a ghost. I always walk before breakfast in the country."

"There is no better time," I answered.

"You look as though you had been up all night," she remarked.

"I had work to finish," I told her.

She nodded.

"So you would have none of my advice, Mr. Secretary," she said softly,
coming a little nearer to me. "You are already installed."

"Already at work," I asserted.

She glanced towards the "Brand."

"I hope that you are comfortable," she said. "A couple of hours is
short notice in which to make a place habitable."

"Grooton is a magician," I told her. "He has arranged everything."

"He is a wonderful servant," she said thoughtfully.

A white-winged bird floated over our heads and drifted away skywards.
She followed it with her eyes.

"You wonder at seeing me so early," she murmured. "Don't you think that
it is worth while? Nothing ever seems so sweet as this first morning
breeze."

I bowed gravely. She was standing bareheaded now at the edge of the
cliff, watching the flight of the bird. It was delightful to see the
faint pink come back to her cheeks with the sting of the salt wind.
Nevertheless, I had an idea in my mind that it was not wholly for her
health's sake that Lady Angela walked abroad so early.

"Tell me," she said presently, "have you had a visitor this morning?"

"What, at this hour?" I exclaimed.

"There are other early risers besides you and me," she said. "The
spinney gate was open, so some one has passed through."

I shook my head.

"I have not seen or heard a soul," I told her. "I have just finished
some work, and I am on my way up to the house with it."

"You really mean it?" she persisted.

"Of course I do," I answered her. "Grooton is the only person I have
spoken to for at least nine hours. Why do you ask?"

She hesitated.

"My window looks this way," she said, "and I fancied that I saw some one
cross the Park while I was dressing. The spinney gate was c