When Leonora West said "please" in that coaxing tone there were not many people who could resist her. Mrs. West did not. She said to herself that it would be no harm to walk about the grounds a bit with her niece. She could not refuse her a breath of fresh air, certainly. She saw Lady Lancaster sitting in a chair in the ball-room, and she did not think it likely that she would stir from her seat for at least an hour. "So I'll run the risk," said the kind-hearted woman. "Come along, Leonora." They went down into the beautiful grounds, along the moonlighted paths, past gleaming groups of statuary, ghost-like in the weird light, past beds of rarest flowers, past thickets of roses, walls of honeysuckles, with the white radiance of the moon shining over everything. "How sweet this is!" the girl whispered. "When we were crossing the ocean, I grew so tired of the water and the sky; I longed for the green grass and the flowers. How soft and fragrant the air is, and how beautiful the moonlight! I think I could stay out here all night." "You would catch your death of cold," Mrs. West said, aghast. "The dews are very heavy." "Oh, of course, I don't mean to; but it is so romantic. It is like an Eastern night, so soft and balmy, and--oh, oh! Aunt West, is that the nightingale--the English nightingale papa used to love so dearly?" She clapped her little hands. It was the nightingale, indeed, hid in some flowery covert, all alone, "Pouring his full heart, In profuse strains of unpremeditated art." "Yes, it is the nightingale," said Mrs. West, delighted that Leonora had found something at last in England to grow enthusiastic over. "There are so many of them here, and it is down by the Magic Mirror you hear that one singing. It is their favorite resort." "The Magic Mirror?" echoed Leonora. "Yes. It is a pretty pond of water a little further on, all fringed with willows and roses. It is as smooth and clear as a mirror, and there is an old tradition that the youth or maiden gazing into the Magic Mirror by moon light, in the month of June, may see there reflected the face of his or her life companion." "Oh, Aunt West, let us go there!" cried the girl, eagerly. "What! you don't believe in that silly tradition?" laughed the good woman. "No, no, but to hear the nightingales," cried Leonora. "Is it far, auntie?" "No; only a short distance further on, at a little bend where two paths meet. But we have come so far already--" "And you are tired," said the girl, with generous compunction. "I ought to have remembered that." She pushed Mrs. West gently into a low rustic seat by the path, and said, kindly: "Sit here and rest while I go find it myself. The nightingale's voice shall guide me." "You will not be long?" said Mrs. West, hesitatingly. "No, no. May I go, Aunt West? Will you wait for me here?" pleadingly.