At first I could hardly believe it; and he, on
his part, looked equally amazed, and very pleasurably so, I must say.
"Why, where have you dropped from, Miss Bawn?" he asked. "A minute ago I
could have sworn I was alone in the house, unless, perhaps, the good old
creature who looks after it had come back from her marketing."
"And where have you dropped from?" I asked, suddenly light-hearted. "I
thought you were on your way to the South Seas."
"Why so I should have been," he answered, "only for sudden happenings.
And how do you come here? To be sure, it is your own house, and I am a
trespasser. I little thought when I came who I should find."
"I am in town for a short visit," I said, "with Miss Champion. She was
not well to-day so I came to see the house alone."
"And, as luck would have it, I had a fancy on the same day to see a
portrait in the picture-gallery here. It is something better than
chance, Miss Bawn."
We stood looking at each other with a happy intimacy. And then his
mention of the portrait recalled the miniature I had found in the wood.
I had had a foolish girl's fancy to hang it about my neck under my
dress, and it lay there now, suspended by a slender gold chain which was
one of my godmother's gifts to me.
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