And if he had any intellectual pleasure in studying the curious shades of the young actress’s character, it was well that he improved his time; for this was the last day on which she should ever appear to him that enigmatical compound of a childlike gaiety and mimicry, with a matronly air which was quite as amusingly unnatural. From this period henceforth, the reader who takes the trouble to follow Annie Brunel’s history will find her a changed woman—drawing nearer to that beautiful ideal which one who knew her mother would have expected to find in Annie Napier’s only child. At present she was chiefly concerned with the various sweets which Count Schönstein’s cook had sent, and also in trying the effect of squeezing the juice of different kinds of fruit into the iced champagne which she sipped from time to time. She came to the conclusion that sliced apple added to champagne and iced water greatly improved its flavour; and she appealed to Grete Halm, who had tried all her different specifics, the two drinking out of the same glass. Grete began to fancy that English ladies, though they were very beautiful and had magnificent hair, were little better than children, to amuse themselves with such nonsense. "I see that Hermann is getting dreadfully impatient," said Miss Brunel, at last; "let us go." "Pardon, mademoiselle," said Will. "Let us have an understanding first." She laughed a bright and merry laugh that puzzled the Count extremely. "Was gibt’s, Grete?" said he. Grete began to explain, with a demure smile, how the Fräulein had held the Herr’s arm when a buck was going past; but the Count soon lost the thread of the story, and had to beg Will for a translation. "I really can’t bear to see any one else shoot when I am looking on," said Miss Brunel. "But if I were myself shooting, I dare say I shouldn’t care." "Come, then," said Will, "will you take my gun during the next drive? I will teach you how to hold it and fire——" "I know that already," she said. It was not the first time she had fired a gun—on the stage. "And I will fix the gun so that you need have no trouble." "Agreed," she said; while Grete, who was about to remain behind to assist in packing up the luncheon things, assured her that the holding of the gun was quite easy, and that she would be sure to kill a splendid deer.