'Of course not,' said Freda decidedly, and quite as much to Stephen as to her. 'We should have got on very well indeed; I'm not so easily killed.'

If he was disappointed at getting no better thanks, he did not show it. He only said as he remounted—

'After that ungrateful speech, there's nothing left for me to do but to wish you both good-bye. You have not far to go now, have you?'

'Only across two fields and down the High Street. We shall be indoors before the sun has set,' Freda returned, looking at it as it hung large and red just above the sea line.

'Good-bye, then. Good-bye, Lottie! Next time we meet, Miss Chace, I'll try and be doleful and discontented for your especial benefit;' and with this parting thrust Stephen trotted down the farm-road, and Freda went soberly home with Lottie.

'So Mr. Redgrave walked back with you, did he?' quoth Miss Morton that evening, as

soon as she and Freda were alone together. 'What is he like?'

'He's like well, he isn't in the least like Lottie. He is tall, and he is good-looking, and I fancy thinks so too. He seemed to me to have a very good opinion of himself altogether.'

'Did he talk? was he civil?' questioned Miss Morton, with an interest unusual in her.

'Oh yes! he was quite civil, and he talked ; but I did not especially like him. He has a sort of off-hand manner, as if he were some great man.'

'And so he is in his way. No one owns so much land on this side of Storleigh as he does, and the old uncle left him a pretty fortune too. Mrs. Steele was telling me about it only yesterday. She says this young man has had the best of education, and is quite the gentleman. Those were her very words quite the gentleman.'

'I daresay,' agreed Freda coolly. 'He may be all that without being pleasant. He

may be pleasant too. I haven't seen enough Lottie is fond of him,

of him to judge.

and he has a nice way with her.'

'I'm very glad we took Lottie,' said Miss Morton reflectively.

'And so am I,' echoed Freda; her thoughts recurring, as they often did, to the difference the child had made in her life.

CHAPTER VIII.

'Will you walk into my parlour? said the spider to the fly ;
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.'

WAS told I should certainly be
turned out,' said Stephen Red-
grave, standing in the open

doorway of Miss Morton's sitting-room some three weeks after that encounter in the Melcombe woods. He had been ushered so far by Sally, and now waited with assumed diffidence, contemplating Freda and Lottie both busily engaged in the manufacture of a doll's frock. My mother said there wasn't a chance for me. Please to prove that she was wrong, and give me leave

to come in.'

He had not observed Miss Morton making

up her weekly accounts at a high desk just behind the door, until that lady pushed back her chair; and Freda, in answer to her look of astonishment, explained,

It is Mr. Redgrave, Aunt Becky!'

'I'm sure I beg your pardon,' said Stephen, slightly disconcerted. That address was meant for Miss Chace, whom I have already the honour of knowing.' Then laughingly advancing, If you are not too much shocked at my impertinence, may I repeat my request more respectfully to you?'

Certainly; we shall be very glad. Pray do,' said Miss Morton, rather incoherently, as she took his offered hand.

She did not quite know what to make of him, but she was disposed to be gratified at this unexpected visit.

'You see,' went on Stephen, when he was fairly established on the sofa, with Lottie between his knees, I had to come into Hamelford this afternoon, for I had an errand at the bank; so I thought I would try for admittance here before I rode