of them, if one went to work judiciously, to pay for putting the place in order.  Presently he came to a hedgerow where a row of very fine timber oaks had stood, of which the Squire had been notoriously fond, and of which he had himself taken particular and admiring notice in the course of the previous winter.  The trees were gone.  In the hedge where they had grown were a series of gaps like those in an old woman’s jaw, and the ground was still littered with remains of bark and branches and of faggots that had been made up from the brushwood.

“Cut down this spring fell,” was Mr. Quest’s ejaculation.  “Poor old gentleman, he must have been pinched before he consented to part with those oaks.”

Then he turned and went back to the house, just in time to see Ida’s guests arriving for the lawn tennis party.  Ida herself was standing on the lawn behind the house, which, bordered as it was by the moat and at the further end by a row of ruined arches, was one of the most picturesque in the country and a very effective setting to any young lady.  As the people came they were shown through the house on to the lawn, and here she was receiving them.  She was dressed in a plain, tight-fitting gown of blue flannel, which showed off her perfect figure to great advantage, and a broad-brimmed hat, that shaded her fine and dignified face.  Mr. Quest sat down on a bench beneath the shade of an arbutus, watching her closely, and indeed, if the study of a perfect English lady of the noblest sort has any charms, he was not without his reward.  There are some women—­most of us know one or two—­ who are born to hold a great position and to sail across the world like a swan through meaner fowl.  It would be very hard to say to what their peculiar charm and dignity is owing.  It is not to beauty only, for though they have presence, many of these women are not beautiful, while some are even plain.  Nor does it spring from native grace and tact alone; though these things must be present.  Rather perhaps it is the reflection of a cultivated intellect acting upon a naturally pure and elevated temperament, which makes these ladies conspicuous and fashions them in such kind that all men, putting aside the mere charm of beauty and the natural softening of judgment in the atmosphere of sex, must recognise in them an equal mind, and a presence more noble than their own.

Such a woman was Ida de la Molle, and if any one doubted it, it was sufficient to compare her in her simplicity to the various human items by whom she was surrounded.  They were a typical county society gathering, such as needs no description, and would not greatly interest if described; neither very good nor very bad, very handsome nor very plain, but moving religiously within the lines of custom and on the ground of commonplace.