“You are in a trance, Sheila,” he said.

She did not answer.  Surely she had wandered into some magical city, for now the houses on one side of the way suddenly ceased, and she saw before her a great and undulating extent of green, with a border of beautiful flowers, and with groups of trees that met the sky all along the southern horizon.  Did the green and beautiful country she had seen, shoot in thus into the heart of the town, or was there another city far away on the other side of the trees?  The place was almost as deserted as those still valleys she had passed by in the morning.  Here in the street there was the roar of a passing crowd; but there was a long and almost deserted stretch of park, with winding roads and umbrageous trees, on which the wan sunlight fell from between loose masses of half-golden cloud.

Then they passed Kensington Gardens, and there were more people walking down the broad highways between the elms.

“You are getting nearly home now, Sheila,” he said.  “And you will be able to come and walk in these avenues whenever you please.”

Was this, then, her home? this section of a barrack-row of dwellings, all alike in steps, pillars, doors, and windows?  When she got inside, the servant who had opened the door bobbed a courtesy to her:  should she shake hands with her and say.  “And are you ferry well?” But at this moment Lavender came running up the steps, playfully hurried her into the house and up the stairs, and led her into her own drawing-room.  “Well, darling, what do you think of your home, now that you see it?”

Sheila looked around timidly.  It was not a big room, but it was a palace in height and grandeur and color compared with that little museum in Borva in which Sheila’s piano stood.  It was all so strange and beautiful—­the split pomegranates and quaint leaves on the upper part of the walls, and underneath a dull slate-color where the pictures hung; the curious painting on the frames of the mirrors; the brilliant curtains, with their stiff and formal patterns.  It was not very much like a home as yet; it was more like a picture that had been carefully planned and executed; but she knew how he had thought of pleasing her in choosing these things, and without saying a word she took his hand and kissed it.  And then she went to one of the three tall French windows and looked out on the square.  There, between the trees, was a space of beautiful soft green; and some children dressed in bright dresses, and attended by a governess in sober black, had just begun to play croquet.  An elderly lady with a small white dog was walking along one of the graveled paths.  An old man was pruning some bushes.

“It is very still and quiet here,” said Sheila.  “I was afraid we should have to live in that terrible noise always.”

“I hope you won’t find it dull, my darling,” he said.

“Dull, when you are here?”

“But I cannot always be here, you know.”