The matter had become irrevocable and beyond discussion, as he
intended, before his return to Belforest, which he only notified by
the post of the morning before he walked into luncheon. By that time
it was a fait accompli, and there was nothing to be done but to enter
on a lively discussion on the polite manners and customs of the two-
sworded nation and the wonderful volcanoes he hoped to explore.
Perhaps one reason that his notice was so short was that there might
be the less time for Kencroft to be put on its guard. Thus, when, by
accident of course, he strolled towards the lodge, he found his
cousin Esther in the wood, with no guardians but the three youngest
children, who had coaxed her, in spite of the heat, to bring them to
the slopes of wood strawberries on their weekly half-holiday.
He had seen nothing, but had only been guided by the sound of voices
to the top of the sloping wooded bank, where, under the shade of the
oak-trees, looking over the tall spreading brackens, he beheld Essie
in her pretty gipsy hat and holland dress, with all her bird-like
daintiness, kneeling on the moss far below him, threading the scarlet
beads on bents of grass, with the little ones round her.
"I heard a chattering," he said, as, descending through the fern, he
met her dark eyes looking up like those of a startled fawn; "so I
came to see whether the rabbits had found tongues.
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