"The price? What, you desire to know my name?" "Unless, indeed, I may call you one of my own choosing," said I, with a glance that should have been irresistible. "Would you use it in speaking of me to Mistress Barbara there? No, I'll give you a name to call me by. You may call me Cydaria." "Cydaria! A fine name!" "It is," said she carelessly, "as good as any other." "But is there no other to follow it?" "When did a poet ask two names to head his sonnet? And surely you wanted mine for a sonnet?" "So be it, Cydaria," said I. "So be it, Simon. And is not Cydaria as pretty as Barbaria?" "It has a strange sound," said I, "but it's well enough." "And now--the nosegay!" "I must pay a reckoning for this," I sighed; but since a bargain is a bargain I gave her the nosegay. She took it, her face all alight with smiles, and buried her nose in it. I stood looking at her, caught by her pretty ways and graceful boldness. Boy though I was, I had been right in telling her that there are many ways of beauty; here were two to start with, hers and Barbara's. She looked up and, finding my gaze on her, made a little grimace as though it were only what she had expected and gave her no more concern than pleasure. Yet at such a look Barbara would have turned cold and distant for an hour or more. Cydaria, smiling in scornful indulgence, dropped me another mocking curtsey, and made as though she would go her way. Yet she did not go, but stood with her head half-averted, a glance straying towards me from the corner of her eye, while with her tiny foot she dug the gravel of the avenue. "It is a lovely place, this park," said she. "But, indeed, it's often hard to find the way about it." I was not backward to take her hint. "If you had a guide now----" I began. "Why, yes, if I had a guide, Simon," she whispered gleefully. "You could find the way, Cydaria, and your guide would be most----" "Most charitably engaged. But then----" She paused, drooping the corners of her mouth in sudden despondency. "But what then?" "Why then, Mistress Barbara would be alone." I hesitated. I glanced towards the house. I looked at Cydaria. "She told me that she wished to be alone," said I. "No? How did she say it?" "I will tell you all about that as we go along," said I, and Cydaria laughed again. CHAPTER II THE WAY OF YOUTH