"When daffodils began to peer, With heigh! the doxy over the dale, Why then comes in the sweet o' the year; For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale. The lark that tirra-lirra chants With heigh! with heigh! the thrush and the jay, Are summer songs for me and my aunts, While we lie tumbling in the hay." "You are a strange man," said Hilarie. "Come and see me again." "I am a vagabond," he replied, "and my name is Autolycus." Dick took off his hat and bowed low, not in Piccadilly style at all; he waved his hand to Molly; he glared defiance at Humphrey, who loftily bent his head; and then, catching up his violin-case, he started off with a step light and elastic. Humphrey, the other cousin, half an hour later, stood beside his carriage. "I must congratulate myself," he said, "on the good fortune which has presented me to the head of my family." "To two cousins, say." "Oh! I fancy we shall not see much of Autolycus. Meanwhile, since you kindly grant me permission, I hope to call upon you again." "I shall be very pleased." As he drove away, his last look was not on Hilarie, but on the girl beside her--the girl called Molly--the nymph attendant. Some, the goddess charms; but more, the nymph attendant. "What was she doing with all those girls?" he asked. "Making a home for them, or some such beastly nonsense, I suppose." CHAPTER IV. THE CONSULTING-ROOM. The doctor's servant opened the door noiselessly, almost stealthily, and looked round the room. There were half a dozen people waiting. One was an ex-colonial governor, who had been maintaining the empire with efficiency in many parts of the world for thirty years, and was now anxious to keep himself alive for a few years in the seclusion of a seaside town, if certain symptoms could be kept down. There was a middle-aged victim to gout; there was an elderly sufferer from rheumatism; there was an anæmic girl; there was a young fellow who looked the picture of health; and, sitting at one of the windows, there was a lady, richly dressed, her pale face, with delicate features of the kind which do not grow old, looking anxious and expectant.