judging by some strange-looking metal rods that projected through the
covering, she took to be apparatus for Lord Jasper's laboratory. From
the wagon, with its patiently trudging horse and dull driver, she lifted
her eyes to the lawn, where the patches of wet shadow beneath the cedars
refreshed the sunlit grass around them. It looked too fine a morning to
spend in bed. Had Marian been able to taste and smell the fragrant
country air she would not have hesitated a moment. But she had been
accustomed to believe that fresh air was unhealthy at night, and though
nothing would have induced her to wash in dirty water, she thought
nothing of breathing dirty air; and so the window was shut and the room
close. Still, the window did not exclude the loud singing of the birds
or the sunlight. She ventured to open it a little, not without a sense
of imprudence. Twenty minutes later she was dressed.

She first looked into the drawing-room, but it was stale and dreary. The
dining-room, which she tried next, made her hungry. The arrival of a
servant with a broom suggested to her that she had better get out of the
way of the household work. She felt half sorry for getting up, and went
out on the lawn to recover her spirits. There she heard a man's voice
trolling a stave somewhere in the direction of the laboratory. Thinking
that it might be Lord Carbury, and that, if so, he would probably not
wait until half past nine to break his fast, she ran gaily off round the
southwest corner of the Cottage to a terrace, from which there was
access through a great double window, now wide open, to a lofty
apartment roofed with glass.

At a large table in the middle of the room sat a man with his back to
the window. He had taken off his coat, and was bending over a small
round block with little holes sunk into it. Each hole was furnished with
a neat brass peg, topped with ebony; and the man was lifting and