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Autu heavy on the hillsides Bracken was yellowing, heather passing fro the soft russet and purple of decline Faint odours of wood smoke seemed to flit over the moor, and the sharp lines of the hill fastnesses were drawn as with a graving-tool against the sky She resolved to go to the Midburn and climb up the cleft, for the place was still a centre of memory So she kept for a mile to the Etterick road, till she cahway spans the moorland waters

There had been intruders in Paradise before her Broken bottles and scraps of paper were defacing the hill turf, and when she turned to get to the water's edge she found the rushy coverts tra the trees ca--a silly irl, in horror at the profanation, was turning in all haste to leave

But the Fates had prepared an adventure Three half-tipsy ether, and bowlers set rakishly on the backs of their heads They kept up the chorus of the song which was being sung elsewhere, and they suited their rolling gait to the measure

"For it ain't Maria," ca phrase was repeated a dozen tiht of the astonished Alice, and dropping their musical efforts they hailed her falers of soentleman who on such occasions is drunk by reat flowers beamed from their button-holes, and after the fashion of their kind their waistcoats were unbuttoned for coo back by the way she had come, but to her horror she found that she was intercepted The three gentlemen commanded her retreat

They seemed comparatively sober, so she tried entreaty "Please, letroad"

"No, you haven't, dearie," said one of the ht have been a clerk "You've co away" And he cahtened, tried to cross the strea was difficult, and she slipped at the outset and wet her ankles One of the three lurched into the water after her, and withdreith sundry oaths