sunshine in order to lead "a great friend" like Mr. Warrender close up to my lady's chair. "We are very glad to see you; in fact, we are much too glad to see you," said Lady Markland, with a smile. "We are ashamed to say that we were not entering into our work as we ought. Nature is always so busy doing a hundred things, and calling us to come and look what she is about. We take more interest in her occupations than in our own." "Mamma makes a story of everything," said Geoff, half aggrieved; "but I'm in earnest. Grammar is dreadful stuff; there are no reflections in it. Why can't one begin to read books straight off, without nasty, stupid rules?" Warrender took little note of what the boy said. Meanwhile he had shaken hands and made his salutations, and his sovereign lady, with a smile, had given him a chair. He felt himself entering, out of the blank world outside, into the sphere of her existence, which was his Vita Nuova, and was capable for the moment of no other thought. "I think," said Lady Markland,--"for we have really been at it conscientiously for a long time and doing our best,--I think, Geoff, we may shut up our books for to-day. You know there will be your lessons to prepare to-night." "I'll go and look at Theo's horse. Have you got that big black one? I shall be back in a moment, mamma." "If you look behind you will find some books, Geoff; some that perhaps you will like." "Oh, good!" said the boy, with his elfish little countenance lighting up. He was very slight and small for his age, a little shadow darting across the sunshine. The half of the terrace lay in a blaze of light, but all was cool and fresh in the corner where Lady Markland's light chairs and table were placed in the angle of the balustrade, there half hidden by a luxuriant climbing rose. Above Lady Markland's head was a cluster of delicate golden roses, tinged in their hearts with faint red, in all the wealth of their second bloom. Her black dress, profound black, without any relief, was the only dark point in the scene. A little faint colour of recovering health, and perhaps of brightening life, had come to her face. She was very tranquil, resting as people rest after a long illness, in a sort of convalescence of the heart. "You must forgive his familiarity, Mr. Warrender; you are so good to him, and at his age one is so apt to presume on that." Warrender had no inclination to waste the few minutes in which he had her all to himself in any discussion of Geoff. He said hastily, "I have brought some other books to be looked at,--things which people are talking of. I don't know if you will care for them, but there is a little novelty in them, at least. I was in town yesterday----" "You are very good to me too," she said. "A new book is a wonderful treat. I thought you must be occupied or absent that we did not see you here."