and the tent I put up to bathe from. And Aunt Cathie wades. You saw her at Brixham, you remember. Did you ever hear of anything so darling? Now you shall talk a little, if you like. I'm afraid I haven't allowed you to speak much yet. Tell me about Brixham. How are things going? Did you have a pleasant party in your house?"
"I really haven't been into Brixham since the day I lunched with you," he said. "My party? No; to speak quite frankly, I thought it was rather dull."
She laughed very genuinely, for she was delighted.
"What a dismal tale!" she said; "and to cheer you up, I take you to this large and desolate beach. But you must like my beach; I can't bear that people should not like what I like. It's so big, and empty, and clean. I should like a room as big, and I should put three chairs in it, and one small table, and have no carpets and no pictures."
"And would you have all the rooms in your house like that?" he asked.
"Ah! no, but one, into which I should go when I found myself getting funny and stuffy and microscopical. Dear me! I'm not letting you talk, as I promised. I assure you I don't always monopolize conversation. I think it's your fault, Lord Brayton."
"I am quite willing to bear both the blame and the conversation," he said. "But why my fault?"
Lucia turned and faced him with the frankness of a boy.
"Because there is something in you that makes me want to talk to it. Oh, there are people who make me feel as if I was talking to a large lump of damp dough. I dare say they are really full of beautiful thoughts and delightful feelings, poor dears! but they are embedded in dough. Or perhaps it is I—probably I."
Again he found that he was scarcely attending to what she said, so absorbed was he in her who said it. And never, so he thought, had her charm appeared so brilliant, as when she stood here on the empty golden sands, in the blaze of this shining afternoon. Truly and faithfully did her noble beauty reflect the splendid spirit that dwelt within; meet was the house from which her soul looked forth, so generously, so warmly on the world. As he looked his heart rose within him: the fire kindled, and he spoke.
"The empty beach, do you say?" he asked quickly. "Lucia,
