In the first place she had become excellent friends with the farmer and had persuaded him to delegate to her a number of his duties. She had to collect the newly laid eggs, hunt up stolen nests, inspect and feed the clucking, quacking, gobbling personnel of the barnyard which came crowding to her clear-voiced call. As for the cattle, she was rather timid about venturing to milk since the Ogilvy's painful and undignified début as an amateur Strephon. However, she assisted at pasture call accompanied by a fat and lazy collie; and she petted and salted the herd to her heart's content. Then there were books and magazines to be read, leisurely; and hammocks to lie in, while her eyes watched the sky where clouds sailed in snowy squadrons out of the breezy west. And what happier company for her than her thoughts--what tenderer companionship than her memories; what more absorbing fellowship than the little busy intimate reflections that came swarming around her, more exciting, more impetuous, more exquisitely disturbing as the hurrying, sunny hours sped away and the first day of June drew nigh? She spent hours alone on the hill behind the house, lying full length in the fragrant, wild grasses, looking across a green and sunlit world toward Ashuelyn. [Illustration: "And what happier company for her than her thoughts--what tenderer companionship than her memories?"] She had told him not to attempt to come to Estwich; and, though she knew she had told him wisely, often and often there on her breezy hilltop she wished that she hadn't--wished that he would disregard her request--hoped he would--lay there, a dry grass stem between her lips, thinking how it would be if, suddenly, down there by--well, say down by that big oak, for example, a figure should stroll into view along the sheep-path.... And at first--just to prolong the tension--perhaps she wouldn't recognise him--just for a moment. Then, suddenly-- But she never got beyond that first blissful instant of recognition--the expression of his face--his quick spring forward--and she, amazed, rising to her feet and hastening forward to meet him. For she never pictured herself as standing still to await the man she loved. When Hélène left, Valerie had the place to herself; and, without any disloyalty to the little countess, she experienced a new pleasure in the liberty of an indolence which exacted nothing of her. She prowled around the library, luxuriously, dipping into inviting volumes; she strolled at hazard from veranda to garden, from garden to lawn, from lawn to farmyard. About luncheon time she arrived at the house with her arms full of scented peonies, and spent a long while selecting the receptacles for them.