Not a breath of wind was stirring; the lazy mist lay asleep on the further shore of the lake.  Here and there only the dim tops of the hills rose like shadows cast by the earth on the faint gray of the sky.  Nearer at hand, the waters of the lake showed a gloomy surface; no birds flew over the colorless calm; no passing insects tempted the fish to rise.  From time to time a last-left leaf on the wooded shore dropped noiselessly and died.  No vehicles passed as yet on the lonely road; no voices were audible from the village; slow and straight wreaths of smoke stole their way out of the chimneys, and lost their vapor in the misty sky.  The one sound that disturbed the sullen repose of the morning was the tramp of the lawyer’s footsteps, as he paced up and down the pier.  He thought of London and its ceaseless traffic, its roaring high tide of life in action—­and he said to himself, with the strong conviction of a town-bred man:  How miserable this is!

A voice from the garden cheered him, just as he reached the end of the pier for the fiftieth time, and looked with fifty-fold intensity of dislike at the dreary lake.

There stood Kitty behind the garden-gate, with a fishing-rod in each hand.  A tin box was strapped on one side of her little body and a basket on the other.  Burdened with these impediments, she required assistance.  Susan had let her out of the house; and Samuel must now open the gate for her.  She was pleased to observe that the raw morning had reddened her friend’s nose; and she presented her own nose to notice as exhibiting perfect sympathy in this respect.  Feeling a misplaced confidence in Mr. Sarrazin’s knowledge and experience as an angler, she handed the fishing-rods to him.  “My fingers are cold,” she said; “you bait the hooks.”  He looked at his young friend in silent perplexity; she pointed to the tin box.  “Plenty of bait there, Samuel; we find maggots do best.”  Mr. Sarrazin eyed the box with undisguised disgust; and Kitty made an unexpected discovery.  “You seem to know nothing about it,” she said.  And Samuel answered, cordially, “Nothing!” In five minutes more he found himself by the side of his young friend—­with his hook baited, his line in the water, and strict injunctions to keep an eye on the float.

They began to fish.

Kitty looked at her companion, and looked away again in silence.  By way of encouraging her to talk, the good-natured lawyer alluded to what she had said when they parted overnight.  “You wanted to ask me something,” he reminded her.  “What is it?”

Without one preliminary word of warning to prepare him for the shock, Kitty answered:  “I want you to tell me what has become of papa, and why Syd has gone away and left me.  You know who Syd is, don’t you?”

The only alternative left to Mr. Sarrazin was to plead ignorance.  While Kitty was instructing him on the subject of her governess, he had time to consider what he should say to her next.  The result added one more to the lost opportunities of Mr. Sarrazin’s life.