"You could try, of course. You have not a carriage. If you just walked
it would make it even. Shall I tell them you are coming? I had better,
perhaps."

"Yes, this afternoon."

And if Halcyone had known it, she was receiving an unheard-of
compliment! The hermit Carlyon--the old Oxford Professor of Greek, who
had come to this out-of-the-way corner because he had been assured by
the agent there would be no sort of society around him--now intended to
put on a tall hat and frock coat, and make a formal call on two maiden
ladies--all for the sake of a child of twelve years, with serious gray
eyes--and a soul!




CHAPTER IV


In her heart of hearts Miss Roberta felt fluttered as she walked across
the empty hall to the Italian parlor behind her sterner sister, to
receive their guest. He would come in the afternoon, Halcyone had said.
That meant about three o'clock, and it behooved ladies expecting a
gentleman to be at ease at some pretty fancy work when he should be
announced.

The village was two miles beyond the lime lodge gates, and for the last
eight years rheumatism in the knee had made the walk there out of the