eally,
that--that--fit of coughing has quite exhausted me for the moment. May I
beg your permission to sit down?"

"Certainly, my lord," replied the little old lady, and in a bird-like
fashion fluttered to the gate. It was not until she had reached the
porch of the cottage that she became aware of the fact that the earl was
following her. "Your lordship's pardon," she said then; "I will bring
your lordship a chair into the garden. I am alone," she added, more prim
and starched than ever, "and I have my reputation to consider."

Miss Blythe entered the cottage and returned with a chair, which she
planted on the gravelled pathway. The old nobleman sat down and took
snuff, twitching and twinkling in humorous enjoyment.

"How long is it since you left us?" he asked. "It looks as if it were
only yesterday."

"I have been absent from Heydon Hay for more than a quarter of a
century," the little old lady answered.

"Ah!" said he, and for a full minute sat staring before him rather
forlornly. He recovered himself with a slight shake and resumed the
talk. "You maintain your reputation for cruelty, Miss Blythe?"

"For cruelty, my lord?" returned Miss Blythe, with a transparent
pretence of not understanding him.

"Breaking hearts," said his lordship, "eh? I was elderly before you went
away, you know, but I remember a disturbance--a disturbance." He rapped
with the knuckles of his left hand on his white kerseymere waistcoat.
Miss Blythe tightened her lips and regarded him with an uncompromising
air.

"Differences of sex, alone, my lord," she said, with decision, "should
preclude a continuance of this conversation."

"Should they?" asked the old nobleman. "Do you really think so? I
forget. I am a monument of old age, and I forget, but I fancy I used to
think otherwise. You were the beauty of the place, you know. Is that a
forbidden topic also?"

Miss Blythe blushed ever so little, but her curiously youthful eyes
smiled, and it was plain she was not greatly displeased. The Earl of
Barfield went quiet again, and again stared straight before him with
a somewhat forlorn expression. The little old lady reminded him of her
mother, and the remembrance of her mother reminded him of his own youth.
He woke up suddenly. "So you've come back?" he said, abruptly. "You've
bought the cottage?"

"The freehold of the cottage was purchased for me by my dear mistress,"
said the little old lady. "I desired to end my days where I began them