“I must shut them up until to-morrow, or the owls might make a supper of them, as happened to some the Sisters kept at the convent.”

She opened the door of a wired apartment beneath the pigeon-house, where in an adjoining division the pheasants were settling upon their perch, and carefully deposited the bouncing furry creatures on a bed of wheat straw.

“Mr. Lindsay, the fowls are all going to roost, and you must wait till morning to see the squabs, and broods of Brahmas and Leghorns.  They look like snowballs rolling about after their food.”

As she locked up the grain, and balanced the key on her fingers, her companion said: 

“I must persuade Uncle Peyton to get some black Spanish, and a few Poland chickens.”

“Oh no!  We don’t want any black things; if they laid a dozen eggs a day they could not come here.  We never raise a fowl that has coloured feathers; all our beauties must be like snow.”

“I see you have converted my uncle to your pet doctrine, and before long I suppose you will persuade him to sell his pretty bay, and buy a white pony?”

“No, sir, I like ‘Sultan’ too well to care much about his colour, and beside, Mr. Hargrove is attached to him.  There is one thing we both want very much indeed, and that is a white Ava cow.  Your uncle read me a description of those cattle last week, and said when you went to the East he would ask you to try and send him one.”

As he looked down at her perfect face, then at one of the doves that had perched on her shoulder, and thought of treacherous swart Sepoys, of Bengal tigers, of all the tangled work that lay before him in Hindoostan jungles, a shadow fell over the young man’s brow, and a dull pain seemed to tighten the valves of his heart.  Just then his appointed lot in the Master’s vineyard did not smile as alluringly as the sunny slopes of Eschol; but he put aside the contrast.

“Regina, I saw Mr. Palma in New York.”

“I hope he is well.”

“He certainly looked so.  Among other things, he asked if the art of writing had been altogether omitted in your education.  I told him I was unacquainted with your accomplishments in that line, as I had written you two letters which remained unanswered.”

“But your mother thanked you for them in my name.”

“Which was very sweet and good in my dear mother, but questionably courteous in you.  Mr. Palma sent you a present.”

“He is very kind indeed, but if I am expected to write and thank him, I would much rather not receive it.”

“Do you dislike him?”

“How could I dislike my mother’s best friend?  I daresay he has a good heart—­of course he must have; but whenever I think of him I feel a queer chill creep to my very finger-tips, as if the north wind blew hard upon me, or an iceberg sailed by.”

“Guess what he sent you.”

“A copybook, pen, and ink?”

“He is too polished a gentleman to punish you so severely.  Come and let me show you his gift.”