porch. He would not be seen down there. He paused a moment,
however; his hat was drawn down over his eyes; he was shivering.
Far over the harvest fields showed a growing pallor in the
solitary seat beneath the cypresses. He stood hesitating, gazing
steadily and yet half vacantly at the motionless figure, and in a
while a face was lifted in his direction, and undisconcerted eyes
calmly surveyed him.

'I am afraid,' called Lawford rather nervously--'I hope I am not
intruding?'

'Not at all, not at all,' said the stranger. 'I have no privileges
here; at least as yet.'

Lawford again hesitated, then slowly advanced. 'It's astonishingly
quiet and beautiful,' he said.

The stranger turned his head to glance over the fields. 'Yes, it
is, very,' he replied. There was the faintest accent, a little
drawl of unfriendliness in the remark.

'You often sit here?' Lawford persisted.

The stranger raised his eyebrows. 'Oh yes, often.' He smiled. 'It
is my own modest fashion of attending divine service. The
congregation is rapt.'

'My visits,' said Lawford, 'have been very few--in fact, so far
as I know, I have only once been here before.'