The child lost no time in creeping beneath the slender wire fence at the roadside, and scrambling down the incline.  The brook whispered and gurgled, wild flowers sprang amid the ferns in the shelter and moisture.  The child was enraptured.

“Oh, Anna Belle!” She exclaimed, hugging the doll for pure joy.  “Castle Discord is far away.  There’s nobody down here but God!”

For hours she played happily in the enchanting spot, all unconscious of time.  Anna Belle lay on a bed of moss, while Jewel became acquainted with her wonderful new playmate, the brook.  The only body of water with which she had been familiar hitherto was Lake Michigan.  Now she drew stones out of the bank and made dams and waterfalls.  She sailed boats of chips and watched them shoot the tiny rapids.  She lay down on the bank beside Anna Belle and gazed up through the leafy treetops.  Many times this programme had been varied, when at last equipages began to pass on the road above.  She could see twinkling wheels and smart liveries.

With a start of recollection, she considered that she might have been a long time in the ravine.

“I wish somebody would let me bring a watch the next time,” she said to her doll, as she took her up.  “Haven’t we had a beautiful afternoon, Anna Belle?  Let’s call it the Ravine of Happiness, and we’ll come here every day—­just every day; but perhaps it’s time for grandpa to be home, dearie, so we must go back to the castle.”  She sighed unconsciously as she began climbing up the steep bank and crept under the wire.  “I hope we haven’t stayed very long, because the giantess might not like it,” she continued uneasily; but as she set her feet in the homeward road, every sensation of anxiety fled before an approaching vision.  She saw a handsome man in riding dress mounted on a shining horse with arched neck, that lifted its feet daintily as it pranced along the tree-lined avenue.

“Grandpa!” ejaculated Jewel, stepping to the roadside and pausing, her hands clasped beneath her chin and her eyes shining with admiration.

Mr. Evringham drew rein, not displeased by the encounter.  The child apparently could not speak.  She eyed the horse rather than its rider, a fact which the latter observed and enjoyed.

“Remind you of the horse show?” he inquired.

“It is the horse show,” rejoined the child.

“This is Essex Maid, Jewel,” said Mr. Evringham.  He patted the mare’s shining neck.  “You shall go out to the barn with me some time and visit her.”  His eyes wandered over the ruffled hair, the hat on the back of the child’s head, and the wet spots on her dress.  “Run home now,” he added.  “I heard Mrs. Forbes asking for you as I came out.”

He rode on, and Jewel, her face radiant, followed him with her eyes.  In a minute he turned, and she threw rapid kisses after him.  He raised his hat, and then a curve in the road hid him from view.

Jewel sighed rapturously and hurried along the road.  The giantess had asked for her.  Ah, what a happy world it would be if there were nothing at Bel-Air Park but grandpa, his horses, and the ravine!