Page 97 (1/1)

4 FIVE TO SIX PM

She followed the road into a bower of trees, overhanging it so densely that the pass appeared like a rabbit's burrow, and presently reached a side entrance to the park The clouds rose more rapidly than the farmer had anticipated: the sheep rey shades, like those of the modern French painters, made a mystery of the remote and dark parts of the vista, and seemed to insist upon a suspension of breath

Before she was half-way across the park the thunder ruo would take her close by the old manor-house The air was perfectly still, and between each low rumble of the thunder behind she could hear the roar of the waterfall before her, and the creak of the engine a dread of the gloo storainst the dark foliage and sky in tones of strange whiteness

On the flight of steps, which descended from a terrace in front to the level of the park, stood a ave to his figure, and partly froht He was dark in outline, and was looking at the sky, with his hands behind him

It was necessary for Cytherea to pass directly across the line of his front She felt so reluctant to do this, that she was about to turn under the trees out of the path and enter it again at a point beyond the Old House; but he had seen her, and she ca her face a little, and dropping her glance to the ground

Her eyes unswervingly lingered along the path until they fell upon another path branching in a right line fro It came from the steps of the Old House 'I aoing through me' A clear masculine voice said, at the sa his question by her feelings at the moment, assumed himself to be the object of fear, if any 'I don't think I aht in that sense

'Of the thunder, I mean,' he said; 'not ofto rain,' she re