‘I have arranged all that,’ Hubert answered hurriedly.  ’I spoke to her last night, and she has consented to remain.’

‘That is very good of you.’  Emily raised her eyes and looked shyly at Hubert; and then, as if doubtful of herself, she said, ’Do you like her?  I’m sure you do.  Every one does.  Do you not think she is very handsome?’

’I think her an exceedingly pleasant woman, and I’m sure we shall all get on very well together.’

‘But don’t you think her very handsome?’

‘Yes; she is a handsome woman.’

Nothing more was said.  Emily drew meditatively on the gravel with the point of her parasol.  The gardeners looked up from their work.

‘I have to go now,’ she said, raising her eyes timidly, ’to feed the swans.  You would not care to go so far?’

’On the contrary, I should like it, of all things.  A walk by the water on a day like this will be quite a treat.’

‘Then will you wait a moment?  I will go and fetch the bread.’  She returned soon after with a small basket; and a large retriever, tied up in the corner of the yard, barked and lugged at his chain.  ’He knows where I am going, and is afraid I shall forget him—­aren’t you, dear old Don?  You wouldn’t like to miss a walk with your mistress, would you, dear?’ The dog bounded and rushed from side to side; it was with difficulty that Emily loosed him.  Once free, he galloped down the drive, returning at intervals for a caress and a sniff at the basket which his mistress carried.  ’There’s nothing there for you, my beautiful Don!’

The drive sloped from the house down to the artificial water, passing under some large elms; and in the twilight of the branches where the sunlight played, and the silence was tremulous with wings, Hubert felt that Emily had forgiven him.  She wore the same black dress that he had admired her in the night before; her waist was confined by the same black band; but the chestnut hair seemed more beautiful beneath the black silk sunshade, leaned so gracefully, the black handle held between thumb and forefinger.  And the little black figure seemed a part of the beautiful English park, now so green and fragrant in all the flower and sunlight of June, and decorated with a blue summer sky, and white clouds moving lazily over the tops of the trees.  And the impression of the beautiful park was enforced by its reflection, which lay, with the mute magic of reflected things, in the still water, stirred only when, with exquisite motion of webbed feet, the swans propelled their freshness to and fro, balancing themselves in the current where they knew the bread must surely fall.

’They are waiting for me.  Cannot you see their black eyes turned towards the bridge?’ And she threw the bread from the basket, and the beautiful birds unbent their curved necks, devouring it voraciously under the water.

In the larger portion of this artificial lake there were two islands, thickly wooded.  In the smaller, which lay behind Emily and Hubert, there was one small island covered with reeds and low bushes, and this was a favourite haunt for the waterfowl, which now came swimming forward, not daring to approach too near the dangerous swans.