"Nothing; I had a tussle with a Somersetshire miner last evening, and feel as if I had got the worst of it to-day. What a lovely view you have from the window!"
The young lady who had spoken to him on the balcony now stepped into the room.
"Well, Gilbert, Aunt Annabella and I had quite given you up. My dear cousin, you look very lugubrious."
"Do I?" Gilbert replied. "A head-ache is a lugubrious thing; and how are you, Gratian?"
"Pretty well. I have been rather out of sorts; but I shall soon recover, now you are come."
"That is a very pretty speech, Gratian, only I can't quite believe it."
"Well, I am going to take a walk abroad now, and leave you and your mother to have a chat together, all about Fairy Acre, or Fair Acre; which is it? I am very stupid; pray forgive me. Any commissions in the Mall or Regent Street, Aunt Bella?"
Mrs. Arundel, who had been getting her son some refreshment from one of the deep cupboards by the fire place, and was anxious to administer a glass of wine, now turned towards her niece. "No. Are you going alone, Gratian?"
"Yes, I am starting alone; I don't mean to fall over the rocks. Good-bye."
Gratian Anson was long past her première jeunesse, and had never been actually pretty; but she was one of those women who exercise an extraordinary fascination apparently without any effort, and have their prey in their net, before there is any suspicion that the net is spread.