spring season. She wore a lightish grey cloth frock and a wide-brimmed
hat, beneath which a vast quantity of chestnut-coloured hair
conspicuously appeared.

He reached the open door as she was on the point of turning away, but,
seeing him, she hesitated.

"Miss Rosser, colonel," said Knight, standing between the pair.

"Good-afternoon, Miss Rosser," cried Colonel Faversham. "Pray come in!
You wish to see Carrissima! I assure you she will be immensely
disappointed if you refuse to wait. I may mention that I had the
pleasure of knowing your father."

"Oh, I remember you perfectly," she replied. "As well as if it were
yesterday."

"Come this way, come this way," he insisted, replacing his hat on the
table as she entered the hall. "Carrissima would never forgive me.
She was talking about you before I had been in the house ten
minutes----"

"But you were just going out," she expostulated. "You mustn't let me
take you up-stairs again."

"Stairs are nothing to me," he said. "I could climb a mountain. I
have climbed many a one before to-day, and I hope I shall again. What
delightful weather!" he continued, as they reached the drawing-room.
"It makes one feel quite--quite capable of anything."