"To you and to Grace, not to me," said Willy, and with very bad grace
he unlocked a drawer, and placed a box of cigars on the table.

"Thank you. Now what time is it? Half-past ten. By Jove! we must be
thinking of starting; I suppose you aren't coming?"

"I am afraid I've too much to do this morning."

The young ladies appeared in new dresses, and with prayer-books in
their hands. Mr. Brookes took his hat and umbrella, and Willy watched
them depart with undisguised satisfaction. "Now I shall be able to get
through some work," he said, untying a large bundle of letters. He
wrote a page in his diary, tied up the letters, diary, and notebook in
brown paper, and, with a sigh, admitting that he did not feel up to
much work to-day, he took up the envelopes that had contained his
letters and began tearing off the stamps, and he did this very
attentively as if he did not trust his dry thick fingers. Somebody had
told him that ten thousand old stamps were worth--he had forgotten the
price of old stamps, and wondering he dozed off. When he awoke he
cried: "Half-past twelve, they must be on their way back; I wonder if
Berkins is with them!" And he strolled out on the gravel.

A few spring flowers marked the brown earth about the trees, and a
beautiful magnolia, white as a bride, shed its shell-like petals in an
angle beneath a window; the gold of the berberis glowed at the end of
the path; and the greenery was blithe as a girl in clear muslin and
ribbons. The blackbirds chattered and ran, and in turn flew to the pan
of water placed for them, and drank, lifting their heads with
exquisite motion. The trees rustled in the cold wind; the sky was
white along the embankment, where an engine moved slowly up and down