“I am so glad! How happy Lady Dumaresq must be! And dear little Guy, how is he?” “Oh, as well as possible, the rogue! And he has not forgotten you. He sent you lots of kisses, and an injunction that you were to come and see him very soon. ‘Tell her if she doesn’t come soon,’ he said, ‘I shall go mad.’” “He didn’t,” cried Sheila, laughing, “Oh, how utterly sweet of him! He is a darling; I should so like to see him again!” Miss Adene asked after Effie, and time flew quickly by. It was so nice to have lost all that old miserable feeling Sheila once thought she must always experience if she met again these friends, whose kindness towards her had been the immediate cause of her banishment from Madeira, and who must, she knew, have guessed in some measure at the cause of it. But Miss Adene seemed to have put that memory right away, and there was nothing but pleasure in meeting her again. It was May’s voice which interrupted the talk at last. “Sheila, I want to get some forget-me-nots from the stream to decorate the dinner-table with. They are so lovely just now, and look exquisite with moss on the white cloth. Do come with me!” Sheila jumped up at once, and the two girls hastened away together. May’s face was rather flushed, and her eyes were shining brightly. The stream which ran through the park was famed for its beds of blue forget-me-not, and there was no trouble in finding flowers enough and to spare. Presently the sound of voices, men’s voices, broke upon their ears, and May jumped up, exclaiming— “Here is North! And he is bringing back a guest of ours, who wanted to see the works. You talk to him, Sheila, and let me have a few words with North. I have so much to say.” There was a merry gleam in May’s eyes, but Sheila suspected nothing until a sudden bend in the path brought them face to face with the approaching pair, and she saw that North’s companion was none other than Ronald Dumaresq. Then for a moment astonishment robbed her of her self-control, and the flowers she was holding in her arm slipped in a mass to the ground. Laughingly Ronald sprang forward, picked them up, and took possession of the load. “I hope you and your flowers are alike in nature, Miss Cholmondeley, and that I am not quite forgotten.” He stretched out his hand and took hers, and she, looking up into the bright manly face, forgot her tremors and her embarrassment, and felt nothing but a sense of pure happiness in being face to face with him again. “I see you do not need an introduction,” said May’s voice, with a mischievous ring in it; and then the four began pacing back slowly towards the house, falling naturally into two and two. “You have seen my aunt?” asked Ronald. “Yes; but she did not say that you had come too.” “No, I asked her not. I wanted to give you a surprise. I hope it has not been a very disagreeable one.” Sheila’s old clear laugh rang out through the wood. “If you are fishing for compliments, sir, you won’t get any out of me!”