I think myself it will do her a world of good." Captain Danton was as good as his word.

He broached the subject to his daughter shortly after breakfast next morning.

It was out in the orchard, where she had strayed, according to custom, with a book.

It was not so much to read--her favourite authors, all of a sudden, had grown flat and insipid, and nothing interested her--but she liked to be alone and undisturbed, "in sunshine calm and sweet," with the scented summer air blowing in her face.

She liked to listen, dreamy and listless, and with all the energy of her nature dead within her, to the soft murmuring of the trees, to the singing of the birds overhead, and to watch the pearly clouds floating through the melting azure above.