yet how long I shall stay."

"You will find many beautiful spots about here which will well repay a
visit. Now, you can see Bessacre lying in the little hollow below us.
The woods over there belong to--Major Heathcote----" She paused
tentatively.

"Yes," said Philippa quietly; "I am staying there."

The other nodded. "I used to live with my aunt at a little house in
the village--the Yew House it was called--you may have noticed it as
you passed--but that was long ago. She has been dead for many years,
and when she died I joined my father abroad. I used to know the High
House very well once, but I do not know either Major or Mrs. Heathcote.
I see so few people in these days. I have been living on Bessmoor for
some time now. There used to be very large parties at the High House
when Lady Louisa was alive, and--I suppose there are plenty of visitors
there now?"

"No, I am the only visitor."

"Do they live all alone?" Isabella Vernon's voice was rather unsteady,
and her eyes were still searching the girl's face.

"They have a little son," Philippa replied, "but he is not well just
now. They are anxious about him."

"I am sorry," said the other simply. "We used to have very happy times
in the old days when--your aunt stayed with Lady Louisa--and her
brother too sometimes."

"He was my father. Did you know him?"

"Oh yes, I knew him quite well."

"He died some years ago."

"Ah! I had not heard. He and I were very good friends when we were
young. But I don't suppose he remembered me."

"I do not think I ever heard him speak of you."

"No, very likely not. But I have a good memory, especially for my
friends. One loses sight of people very easily, far too easily; and
then it is difficult to find them again when one returns to England
after a long absence. You have been a good deal abroad too, I expect."

"Yes, I have lived almost entirely abroad. So much so, in fact, that I
am disgracefully ignorant about my native land. I hardly know it at
all. I was so interested as I travelled down here, to see how utterly
different it was to anything I had ever seen."

"I think that is the most interesting part of travelling," answered
Isabella Vernon, smiling "The aspect of the different countries, I
mean. Not the people, but the very earth itself. You cross a frontier
and at once all seems changed. There may be hills and trees and water
just as there have been before, but they have not in the least