Miss Monro objected a little to this caprice of Ellinor's, saying that it was too early for out-of-door meals; but Mr.Corbet overruled all objections, and helped her in her gay preparations.

She always kept to the early hours of her childhood, although she, as then, regularly sat with her father at his late dinner; and this meal _al fresco_ was to be a reality to her and Miss Monro.

There was a place arranged for her father, and she seized upon him as he was coming from the stable-yard, by the shrubbery path, to his study, and with merry playfulness made him a prisoner, accusing him of disappointing them of their ride, and drawing him more than half unwilling, to his chair by the table.

But he was silent, and almost sad: his presence damped them all; they could hardly tell why, for he did not object to anything, though he seemed to enjoy nothing, and only to force a smile at Ellinor's occasional sallies.

These became more and more rare as she perceived her father's depression.