ers of
color; for in the balconies outside, in the full glare of the sun, were
geraniums, and lobelias, and golden calceolarias, and red snapdragon,
their bright hues faintly tempered by the thin curtains through which
they were seen. He could not help expressing his admiration of these
things that were so new to him, for it seemed to him that he had come
into a land of perpetual summer and sunshine and glowing flowers. Then
the luxuriant greenness of the foliage on the other side of Exhibition
Road--for Mrs. Ross's house faced westward--was, as he said, singularly
beautiful to one accustomed to the windy skies of the western isles.

"But you have not seen our elm--our own elm," said Mrs. Ross, who was
arranging some azaleas that had just been sent her. "We are very proud
of our elm. Gertrude, will you take Sir Keith to see our noble elm?"

He had almost forgotten who Gertrude was; but the next second he
recognized the low and almost timid voice that said.

"Will you come this way, then Sir Keith?"

He turned, and found that it was Miss White who spoke. How was it that
this girl, who was only a girl, seemed to do things so easily, and
gently, and naturally, without any trace of embarrassment or
self-consciousness? He followed her, and knew not which to admire the
more, the careless simplicity of her manner, or the singular symmetry of
her tall and slender figure. He had never seen any statue or any picture
in any book to be compared with this woman, who was so fine, and rare,
and delicate that she seemed only a beautiful tall flower in this garden
of flowers. There was a strange simplicity, too, about her dress--a
plain, tight-fitting, tight-sleeved dress of unrelieved black, her only
adornment being some bands of big blue beads worn loosely round the
neck. The black figure, in this shimmer of rose-pink and gold and
flowers, was effective enough; but even the finest of pictures or the
finest of statues has not the subtle attraction of a graceful carriage.
Macleod had never seen any woman walk as this woman walked, in so
stately and yet so simple a way.

From Mrs. Ross's chief drawing-room they passed into an
antedrawing-room, which was partly a passage and partly a conservatory.
On the window side were some rows of Cape heaths, on the wall side some
rows of blue and white plates; and it was one of the latter that was
engaging the attention of two persons in this anteroom--Colonel Ross
himself, and a little old gent