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48 glad of each other's company, like old friends. Shyness and constraint were beneath the nature of this girl, who had the clear self-possession which comes from a life lived rightly alone, or which a young person receives from association with an old one.

"Did you have any playmates here when you were a little girl?" he asked.

"No," was the answer, possibly with a tinge of sadness. "Arthur was so much older"— She paused, looking absently after the wheeling gulls, and the shoal now black in the distance. Then, as she started walking again: "But I had many games," she said brightly. "You would think them silly. Why, this field that we 're crossing: I used to walk from end to end of it all day, alone and perfectly happy, tapping the ground with a forked hazel stick my father cut for me, and playing I was a witch, divining. It was the happiest day in my life when I came tapping along into this—see"—

The rise of the hill had become more abrupt, as they neared the ascent to the high land above the cliffs. In the deepest of the