the better for it,' replied Audrey bluntly. She had
no time to say more, for a gay whistle heralded the new-comer; and the
next moment a young man vaulted lightly over the low window-sill.

He seemed a little taken aback at the sight of a stranger, shook hands
rather gravely with Audrey, and then sat down silently beside his
mother.

Audrey's first thought was that Mrs. Blake had not said a word too much.
Cyril Blake was certainly a very striking-looking young man. 'He is like
his mother,' she said to herself; 'he is as handsome in his way as she
is in hers. There is something foreign in his complexion, and in those
very dark eyes; it looks as though there were Spanish or Italian blood
in their veins. She hardly looks old enough to be his mother. Father
said he was two-and-twenty. What an interesting family they seem! I am
sure I shall see a great deal of them.'

Cyril was a little silent at first. He was afflicted with the
Englishman's _mauvaise honte_ with strangers, and was a little young for
his age, in spite of his cleverness. But Mrs. Blake was not disposed to
leave him in quiet. She knew that he could talk fluently enough when his
tongue was once loosened; so she proceeded to tell him of Audrey's
neighbourly kindness, treating it with an airy grace; and, of course,
Cyril responded with a brief compliment or two. She then drew him out by
skilful questions on Rutherford and its inhabitants, to which Audrey
duly replied.

'And you like the place, Miss Ross?'

'Oh, of course one likes the place where one lives,' she returned
brightly. 'I was only a little girl when father came to Woodcote, so all
my happiest associations are with Rutherford. I grumble sometimes
because the town is so small and there are not enough human beings.'

'There are over three hundred boys, are there not?' asked Cyril, looking
up quickly.

'Oh, boys! I was not thinking of them. Yes, there are more than three
hundred. I delight in boys, but one wants men and women as well. We have
too few types. There are the masters and the masters' wives, and the
doctors and the vicar, and a curate or two, but that is all. A public
school is nice, but its society is limited.'

'Limited, but choice.'

'Decidedly choice. Now, in my opinion, people ought not to be too
exclusive. I am sociable by nature. "The world forgetting, by the world
forgot" is not to my mind. I like variety even in character.'

'I think we are kindred spirits, my dear Miss Ros