toward her she was in a mere state of wonder. It was not possible that he
had lost his way; but if so, she was sorry that, in losing it, he had
found the slender zigzag of her path. A trustful child,--save where Hugon
was concerned,--she was not in the least afraid, and being of a friendly
mind looked at the approaching figure with shy kindliness, and thought
that he must have come from a distant part of the country. She thought
that had she ever seen him before she would have remembered it.

Upon the outskirts of the ring, clear of the close embrace of flowering
bush and spreading vine. Haward paused, and looked with smiling eyes at
this girl of the woods, this forest creature that, springing from the
earth, had set its back against the tree.

"Tarry awhile," he said. "Slip not yet within the bark. Had I known, I
should have brought oblation of milk and honey."

"This is the thicket between Fair View and the glebe lands," said Audrey,
who knew not what bark of tree and milk and honey had to do with the case.
"Over yonder, sir, is the road to the great house. This path ends here;
you must go back to the edge of the wood, then turn to the south"--

"I have not lost my way," answered Haward, still smiling. "It is pleasant
here in the shade, after the warmth of the open. May I not sit down upon
the leaves and talk to you for a while? I came out to find you, you
know."

As he spoke, and without waiting for the permission which he asked, he
crossed the rustling leaves, and threw himself down upon the earth between
two branching roots. Her skirt brushed his knee; with a movement quick and
shy she put more distance between them, then stood and looked at him with