I stepped across the wet pavement after him and, stooping low down, crossed the threshold of the "Rose and Crown." We passed by a room in which several labouring men were drinking mugs of beer, and entered the bar, in which a rosy-cheeked country damsel was exchanging noisy and not too choice badinage with one or two young men who hung about her. From here another door led into an inner room and at this de Cartienne somewhat ostentatiously knocked. There was a second's pause; then a clear, pleasant voice sang out "Come in!" and we entered. It was a small, cosy room, not ill-furnished, and with a cheerful fire burning in the grate. Leaning against the mantelpiece, with his face towards us, was Cis, whose likeness to Lady Beatrice was so remarkable that I liked him heartily before we had exchanged a word. Standing by his side, with her head suspiciously near his shoulder, was a very fair girl, with nice figure and complexion and large blue eyes. Her face was certainly pretty, but it was not of a very high type of prettiness. The features, although regular of their sort, were not in any way refined or _spirituelle_, nor was there anything in her expression to redeem her from the mediocrity of good looks. Still, she was undoubtedly a nice-looking girl, quite pretty enough to be the belle of a country place, and, on the whole, I was rather relieved to find her attractions of so ordinary a kind. There could scarcely be anything dangerous, I thought, in this good-humoured doll's face; she did not appear to have the daring or character to lead her boyish admirer over the borders of a spooning sentimentality. At any rate, that was not written in her face. A blunt physiognomist would probably have declared that there was not enough of the devil in her to fire the blood even of an impetuous, generous boy and urge him on to recklessness. It seemed so to me and I was glad of it. Just at present there were traces of tears in her face and a generally woe-begone expression. Her companion, too, looked upset and sympathetic; but he glanced up with a bright smile when we entered. "You're Philip Morton, I suppose?" he exclaimed, holding out his hand. "Glad to see you! Heard of you from my uncle, you know!" I shook hands with him and he introduced me formally to the young woman at his side, calling her Miss Hart. Then he turned to me again. "I quite meant to have been at the station to meet you," he said; "but we called here first and I--I was detained." "It's of no consequence at all," I assured him. "Mr. de Cartienne was there." "And Mr. de Cartienne having had to wait half an hour in the rain at that infernal old shed they call a station, requires a little refreshment," chimed in the person named. "Will the fair Millicent condescend, or shall I ring?" She rose and, crossing the room, opened the door into the bar.