nts. Do you know them?'

'I ought to,' said the young man, smiling again, and he imitated the cry
of the cock-pheasant so perfectly that a bird answered out of the wood.

'What a big painted clucking fool is a pheasant,' he said. 'Just like some
Romans!'

'But you're a Roman yourself, aren't you?' said Una.

'Ye-es and no. I'm one of a good few thousands who have never seen Rome
except in a picture. My people have lived at Vectis for generations.
Vectis! That island West yonder that you can see from so far in clear
weather.'

'Do you mean the Isle of Wight? It lifts up just before rain, and we see
it from the Downs.'

'Very likely. Our Villa's on the South edge of the Island, by the Broken
Cliffs. Most of it is three hundred years old, but the cow-stables, where
our first ancestor lived, must be a hundred years older. Oh, quite that,
because the founder of our family had his land given him by Agricola at
the Settlement. It's not a bad little place for its size. In spring-time
violets grow down to the very beach. I've gathered sea-weeds for myself
and violets for my Mother many a time with our old nurse.'

'Was your nurse a--a Romaness too?'

'No, a Numidian. Gods be good to her! A dear, fat, brown thing with a
tongue like a cowbell. She was a free woman. By the way, are you free,
maiden?'

'Oh, quite,' said Una. 'At least, till tea-time; and in summer our
governess doesn't say much if we're late.'

The young man laughed again--a proper understanding laugh.

'I see,' said he. 'That accounts for your being in the wood. _We_ hid
among the cliffs.'

'Did _you_ have a governess, then?'

'Did we not? A Greek, too. She had a way of clutching her dress when she
hunted us among the gorze-bushes that made us laugh. Then she'd say she'd
get us whipped. She never did, though, bless her! Aglaia was a thorough
sportswoman, for all her learning.'

'But what lessons did you do--when--when you were little!'

'Ancient history, the Classics, arithmetic, and so on,' he answered. 'My
sister and I were thickheads, but my two brothers (I'm the middle one)
liked those things, and, of course, Mother was clever enough for any six.
She was nearly as tall as I am, and she looked like the new statue on the
Western Road--the Demeter of the Baskets, you know. And funny! Roma Dea!
How Mother could make us laugh!'

'What at?'

'Little jokes and sayings that every family has. Don't you know?'

'I know _we_ have, but I didn't know