mined not to trouble you. You have shown me how unfriendly I should have been."
"But you knew of the place being ours and of our relationship?"
"Just so. It was because of these things that I came down here,—because of them, almost, that I came to England. I have always liked to think of them."
"You merely wished to look, then? We don't pretend to be much to look at."
"You don't know what you are, Miss Searle," said my friend, gravely.
"You like the old place, then?"
Searle looked at her in silence. "If I could only tell you," he said at last.
"Do tell me! You must come and stay with us."
Searle began to laugh. "Take care, take care," he cried. "I should surprise you. At least I should bore you. I should never leave you."
"O, you 'd get homesick for America!"
At this Searle laughed the more. "By the way," he cried to me, "tell Miss Searle about America!" And he stepped through the window out upon the terrace, followed by two beautiful dogs, a pointer and a young stag-hound, who from the moment we came in had established the fondest relation with him. Miss Searle looked at him as he went, with a certain tender won-
