"Oh don't! oh don't!" she said, and began to cry.

I got up and walked about under the ash-tree till she had dried her
eyes. The croquet-players were intent upon their game.

I again sat down beside her; she had dried her eyes, and at length she
said--

"What a dreadful thing it was about your poor father and mother, and
_my_ dear mother! Do you remember her? She died a week after you left. I
went to Russia with papa--Dr. Seraskier. What a terrible break-up it
all was!"

And then we gradually fell to talking quite naturally about old times,
and dear dead people. She never took her eyes off mine. After a while
I said--

"I went to Passy, and found everything changed and built over. It
nearly drove me mad to see. I went to St. Cloud, and saw you driving
with the Empress of the French. That night I had such an extraordinary
dream! I dreamed I was floundering about the Rue de la Pompe, and had
just got to the avenue gate, and you were there."

"Good heavens!" she whispered, and turned white again, and trembled all
over, "what do you mean?"

"Yes," I said, "you came to my rescue. I was pursued by gnomes and
horrors."

_She._ "Good heavens! by--by two little jailers, a man and his wife, who