'I have some papers of importance to look over,' said he. 'For an hour
or so I shall be engaged. I can guess that Louis would like to see the
old place once again, and I am sure that he could not have a better
guide than you, Sibylle, if you will take him over it.'

She raised no objection, and for my part I was overjoyed at the
proposal, as it gave me an opportunity of learning more of this singular
cousin of mine, who had told me so much and yet seemed to know so much
more. What was the meaning of this obscure warning which she had given
me against her father, and why was she so frankly anxious to know about
my love affairs? These were the two questions which pressed for an
answer. So out we went together into the sweet coast-land air, the
sweeter for the gale of the night before, and we walked through the old
yew-lined paths, and out into the park, and so round the castle, looking
up at the gables, the grey pinnacles, the oak-mullioned windows, the
ancient wing with its crenulated walls and its meurtriere windows, the
modern with its pleasant verandah and veil of honeysuckle. And as she
showed me each fresh little detail, with a particularity which made me
understand how dear the place had become to her, she would still keep
offering her apologies for the fact that she should be the hostess and I
the visitor.

'It is not against you but against ourselves that I was bitter,' said
she, 'for are we not the cuckoos who have taken a strange nest and
driven out those who built it? It makes me blush to think that my
father should invite you to your own house.'

'Perhaps we had been rooted here too long,' I answered. 'Perhaps it is
for our own good that we are driven out to carve our own fortunes, as I
intend to do.'