w!"
Darsie tossed her head and pointed towards her treasures with an air of
such radiant satisfaction that Noreen and Ida dropped the effort to be
polite, and pealed with delighted laughter.

"You _are_ a funny girl! You do amuse us. It's so nice to have a new
friend. The girls near here are so deadly dull. You seem so full of
spirit."

"Too full. It runs away with me. I act first and think afterwards.
_Not_ a good principle for a working life," pronounced Miss Darsie
sententiously as she searched among the green leaves for a strawberry
sufficiently large and red to suit her fastidious taste. The Percivals
watched her with fascinated gaze. An hour before they would have
professed the most profound pity for a girl who lived in a street, owned
neither horse nor dog, and looked forward to earning her own living, but
it was with something more closely resembling envy that they now
regarded Darsie Garnett, weighted as she was with all these drawbacks.
There was about her an air of breeziness, of adventure, which shook them
out of their self-complacence. It no longer seemed the all-important
thing in life to belong to a county family, attend the hunt, and look
forward to a presentation at Court; they felt suddenly countrified and
dull, restricted in aim and interest.

It was while Darsie was still conversing in airy, discursive fashion,
and her companions listening with fascinated attention, that footsteps
were heard approaching, and Ralph's tall figure appeared at the end of
the path. He was evidently taking a short cut through the grounds, and
as Darsie was out of his line of vision, being planted well back among
the strawberry plants, he saw only his two sisters, and advanced to meet
them with cheerful unconcern.

"Hulloa! Here's luck! Hasn't she come?"

"Oh, yes! But it is luck all the same. Look for yourself!" cried
Noreen gleefully, pointing with outstretched hand to where Darsie sat, a
pale blue figure among a nest of greenery, her little, flushed, laughing
face tilted upward on the long white throat, her scattered locks ashine
in the sun. With the air of a queen she extended finger-tips crimson
with the strawberry juice towards the newcomer, and with the air of a
courtier Ralph Percival stooped to take them in his own.

For a moment they stared full into each other's eyes, while the
bewilderment on the young man's face slowly gave place to recognition.

"Glad to see you again, Princess Goldenloc