the kennels.
His lordship had numerous instructions to give on this last day, and his
lieutenant had to receive and register his orders. Lesbia went to the
garden with her book and with Fraeulein--the inevitable Fraeulein as
Hammond thought her--in close attendance.

It was a lovely morning, sultry, summer-like, albeit September had just
begun. The tennis lawn, which had been levelled on one side of the
house, was surrounded on three sides by shrubberies planted forty years
ago, in the beginning of Lady Maulevrier's widowhood. All loveliest
trees grew there in perfection, sheltered by the mighty wall of the
mountain, fed by the mists from the lake. Larch and mountain ash, and
Lawsonian cyprus,--deodara and magnolia, arbutus, and silver broom,
acacia and lilac, flourished here in that rich beauty which made every
cottage garden in the happy district a little paradise; and here in a
semi-circular recess at one end of the lawn were rustic chairs and
tables and an umbrella tent. This was Lady Lesbia's chosen retreat on
summer mornings, and a favourite place for afternoon tea.

Mr. Hammond followed the two ladies to their bower.

'This is to be my last morning,' he said, looking at Lesbia. 'Will you
think me a great bore if I spend it with you?'

'We shall think it very nice of you,' answered Lesbia, without a vestige
of emotion; 'especially if you will read to us.'

'I will do any thing to make myself useful. What shall I read?'

'Anything you like. What do you say to Tennyson?'

'That he is a noble poet, a teacher of all good; but too philosophical
for my present mood. May I read you some of Heine's ballads, those songs
which you sing so exquisitely, or rather some you do not sing, and which
will be fresher to you. My German is far from perfect, but I am told it
is passable, and Fraeulein Mueller can throw her scissors at me when my
accent is too dreadful.'

'You speak German beautifully,' said Fraeulein. 'I wonder where you
learned it?'

'I have been a good deal in Germany, and I had a Hanoverian valet who
was quite a gentleman, and spoke admirably, I think I learned more from
him than from grammars or dictionaries. I'll go and fetch Heine.'

'What a very agreeable person Mr. Hammond is,' said Fraeulein, when he
was gone. 'We shall quite miss him.'

'Yes, I have no doubt we shall miss him,' said Lesbia, again without the
faintest emotion.

The governess began to think that the ordeal of an agreeable young m