barred windows giving upon dark
courts, out of which no one ever seemed to look. But now that I know
them all from the inside, they seem commonplace enough. The hidden
garden is a place where Dons smoke and play bowls; the barred window is
an undergraduate's gyp-room; there's no mystery left about them now.
This place as I see it to-day--well, it seems the most romantic place
in the world, full of unutterable secrets of life and death; but I
suppose it may all come to wear a perfectly natural air to me some day."

"That is what I like so much about Cousin Anne," said Maud; "nothing
seems to be commonplace to her, and she puts back the mystery and
wonder into it all. One must learn to do that for oneself somehow."

"Yes, she's a great woman!" said Howard; "but what shall we do now?"

"Oh, I am sorry," said Maud, "I have been keeping you all this
time--wouldn't you like to go and look for Jack? I think I heard a shot
just now up the valley."

"No," said Howard, looking at her and smiling, "we won't go and look
for Jack to-day; he has quite enough of my company. I want your company
to-day, and only yours. I want to get used to my new-found cousin."

"And to get rid of the sense of romance about her?" said Maud with a
smile; "you will soon come to the end of me."

"I will take my chance of that," said Howard. "At present I feel on the
other side of the wall."

"But I don't," said Maud, laughing; "I can't think how you slip in and
fit in as you do, and disentangle all our little puzzles as you have
done. I thought I should be terrified of you--and now I feel as if I
had known you ever so long. You are like Cousin Anne, you know."

"Perhaps I am, a little," said Howard, "but you are not very much like
Jack! Show me Mrs. Darby's house, by the way. I wonder how things are
going."

"There it is," said Maud, pointing to a house not far from the
Vicarage, "and there is Dr. Grierson's dogcart. I am afraid I had not
been thinking about her; but I do hope it's all right. I think she will
get over this. Don't you always have an idea, when people are ill,
whether they will get well or not?"

"Yes," said Howard, "I do; but it doesn't always come right!"

They lingered long on the hill, and at last Maud said that she must
return for tea. "Papa will be sure to bring Dr. Grierson in."

They went down the hill, talking lightly and easily; and to Howard it
was more delightful than anything he had known to have a peep into the
g