Part 11 (2/2)

Miss Chesney's clear notes, rather raised and evidently excited, blend with those of old Michael Ronaldson, whose quavering ba.s.s is also uplifted, suggesting unwonted agitation on the part of this easy-going though ancient gentleman.

Lilian is standing on tip-toe, opposite a plum-tree, with the long tail of her black gown caught firmly in one hand, while with the other she points frantically in a direction high above her head.

”Don't you see him?” she says, reproachfully,--”there--in that corner.”

”No, that I don't,” says Michael, blankly, sheltering his forehead with both hands from the sun's rays, while straining his gaze anxiously toward the spot named.

”Not see him! Why, he is a big one, a _monster_! Michael,” says Lilian, reproachfully, ”you are growing either stupid or short-sighted, and I didn't expect it from you. Now follow the tip of my finger; look right along it now--now”--with growing excitement, ”don't you see it?”

”I do, I do,” says the old man, enthusiastically; ”wait till I get 'en--won't I pay him off!”

”Is it a plum you want?” asks Guy, who has come up behind her, and is lost in wonder at what he considers is her excitement about the fruit.

”Shall I get it for you?”

”A plum! no, it is a snail I want,” says Lilian eagerly, ”but I can't get at it. Oh, that I had been born five inches taller! Ronaldson, you are not tall enough; Sir Guy will catch him.”

Sir Guy, having brought a huge snail to the ground, presents him gravely to Lilian.

”That is the twenty-third we have caught to-day,” says she, ”and twenty-nine yesterday,--in all forty-eight. Isn't it, Michael?”

”I think it makes fifty-two,” suggests Sir Guy, deferentially.

”Does it? Well, it makes no difference,” says Miss Chesney, with a fine disregard of arithmetic; ”at all events, either way, it is a tremendous number. I'm sure I don't know where they come from,”--despairingly,-- ”unless they all walk back again during the night.”

”And I wouldn't wonder too,” says Michael, _sotto voce_.

”Walk back again!” repeats Guy, amazed. ”Don't you kill them?”

”Miss Chesney won't hear of 'en being killed, Sir Guy,” says old Ronaldson, sheepishly; ”she says as 'ow the cracklin' of 'en do make her feel sick all over.”

”Oh, yes,” says Lilian, making a little wry face, ”I hate to think of it. He used to crunch them under his heel, so,” with a shudder, and a small stamp upon the ground, ”and it used to make me absolutely faint.

So we gave it up, and now we just throw them over the wall, so,”--suiting the action to the word, and flinging the slimy creature she holds with dainty disgust, between her first finger and thumb, over the garden boundary.

Guy laughs, and, thus encouraged, so does old Michael.

”Well, at all events, it must take them a long time to get back,” says Lilian, apologetically.

”On your head be it if we have no vegetables or fruit this year,” says Chetwoode, who understands as much about gardening as the man in the moon, but thinks it right to say something. ”Come for a walk, Lilian, will you? It is a pity to lose this charming day.” He speaks with marked diffidence (his lady's moods being uncertain), which so far gains upon Miss Chesney that in return she deigns to be gracious.

”I don't mind if I do,” she replies, with much civility. ”Good-morning, Michael;” and with a pretty little nod, and a still prettier smile in answer to the old man's low salutation, she walks away beside her guardian.

Far into the woods they roam, the teeming woods all green and bronze and copper-colored, content and happy in that no actual grief disturbs them.

”The branches cross above their eyes, The skies are in a net;”

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