said.

'I think not. I think of going abroad for the autumn. I have been
rather a long time at Cumber, you know, and I'm afraid the roving
mood is coming upon me again. I shall be sorry to go, too, for I had
intended to torment you continually about your art studies. You have
really a genius for landscape, you know, Miss Darrell; you only want
to be goaded into industry now and then by some severe critic like
myself. Is your cousin, Mr. Stormont, an artist, by the way?'

'Not at all.'

'That's a pity. He seems a clever young man. I suppose he will be a
good deal with you, now that Mr. and Mrs. Darrell have returned?'

'He cannot stay very long at a time. He has the chief position in
papa's counting-house.'

'Indeed! He looked a little as if the cares of business weighed upon
his spirit.'

He glanced rather curiously at Milly while he was speaking of Mr.
Stormont. Was he really going away, I wondered, or was that threat
of departure only a lover-like ruse?

The rain came presently with all the violence usual to a thunder-
shower. We were prisoners in Mrs. Thatcher's cottage for more than
an hour; a happy hour, I think, to Milly, in spite of the closeness
of the atmosphere and the medical odour of the herbs. Angus Egerton
stood beside her chair all the time, looking down at her bright face