"Won't you come in?
There is a boy somewhere about the premises who can look after your horse, and I shall be able to give you some tea as soon as Robert gets back with the milk." He cooeed to the boy, who came up from one of the lower shelves of garden, and she followed him into the hall.

He looked around him for a moment in some perplexity.
"I wonder whether you would mind coming into my study ?" he suggested.
"I am here quite alone for the present, and it is the only room I use." She followed him down a long passage into a small apartment at the extreme end of the house.
"You are like me," she said.

"I keep most of my rooms shut up and live in my den.

A lonely person needs so much atmosphere." "Rather a pigsty, isn't it ?" he remarked, sweeping a heap of books from a chair.

"I am without a secretary just now--in fact," he went on, with a little burst of confidence engendered by her friendly attitude, "we are in a mess altogether." She laughed softly, leaning back amongst the cushions of the chair and looking around the room, her kindly eyes filled with interest.
"It is a most characteristic mess," she declared.