“I like the children,” she answered, “and I should have found no society but my own this afternoon, for Mrs. Vavasour was going to pay visits, she said, and Maria went out directly after lunch.”

“And you think your own society would have been less peaceable than that of these noisy little ruffians?”

“I don’t know,” she answered; “I like walking by myself very much sometimes, but I like the children, too, and Madge and I are great friends.”

“I think Madge shows her sense—­she and I are great friends, too,” said Graham, laughing.

“Madge thinks there is no one in the world like Uncle Horace—­ she is always talking about you,” said Madelon, shyly.

“That is strange—­to me she is always talking about you—­she looks upon you as a sort of fairy princess, I believe, who has lived in a charmed world as strange to her as any she reads about in story-books.  Madge’s experiences are limited, and it does not take much to set her little brain working.  If Maria and I are abroad next winter, I think I must get Georgie to spare her to me for a time.”

“Are you going abroad again?” said Madelon; and as she asked the question, a chill shadow seemed to fall upon the bright spring landscape.

“It is possible—­ I have heard of an opening.”

He paused for a moment, and then went on,—­

“I don’t know why I should not tell you all about it, Madelon, though I have said nothing about it to any one yet—­but it will be no secret.  I had a letter this morning telling me that there is an opening for a physician at L——­, that small place on the Mediterranean, you know, that has come so much into fashion lately as a winter place for invalids.  Dr. B——­, an old friend of mine, who is there now, is going to leave it, and he has written to give me the first offer of being his successor.”

“And shall you go?” asked Madelon.

“Well, I should like it well enough for a good many reasons, for the next two or three years, at any rate.  It is a lovely place, a good climate, and I should not feel myself tied down if anything else turned up that suited me better; but there are other considerations—­in fact, I cannot decide without thinking it well over.”

“But at any rate, you would not go there till next winter, would you?” said Madelon, with a tremor in her voice which she vainly tried to conceal.

“Not to stop; but if I accept this offer, I should go out immediately for a week or two, so as to get introduced to B——­ ’s patients before they leave.  A good many will be returning next winter probably, and it would be as well for me, as a matter of business, to make their acquaintance; you understand?”

“Yes, I understand—­but then you would have to go at once, Monsieur Horace, for it is already April, and the weather is so warm that people will be coming away.  I remember how they used to fly from Nice and Florence—­every one that we knew as soon as it began to get hot.”