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scene of utter peace. Close to the pond was a table laid for tea over which a big blue and white sunshade had been set; and seated at the table was a girl of about my age. She looked as though she were tall;
    she was certainly slender, a dainty Dresden figure. Her honey coloured hair hung in long ringlets down her back; her gown was of pale blue with white lace collar and cuffs. She fitted the scene perfectly. There was another woman; she must be Lucie, I decided. She was about ten years older than the girl; and in a bath chair was a woman whom I guessed to be “Mamma’, fair-haired like the girl, delicate and fragile-looking with the same Dresden quality.
    “It’s pleasant in the shade. Mamma,” said the girl.
    “I do hope so.” The voice was a little peevish.
    “You know how the heat upsets me. Lucie, where are my smelling salts?”
    I watched them talking together. Lucie had brought the chair closer to the girl who rose to make sure that the cushion behind Mamma’s head was in the best place. Lucie went across the lawn presumably to fetch the smelling salts. I imagined her to be a companion, a higher servant, perhaps a poor relation. Poor Lucie!
    They were talking but I only heard their voices when the breeze carried them to me. This breeze, which could be strong when it blew, was intermittent. What happened next was due to it. The scarf about my neck had become loosened during my climb. I had not noticed this and as I leaned forward to see and hear better, it caught in a branch and was dragged from my neck. It hung lightly suspended on the tree but as I was about to take it a stronger gust of wind caught it and, snatching it from me, carried it over the wall mischievously as though to punish me for eavesdropping. It
     
    fluttered across the grass ana came to rest close to the group at the tea table but they did not seem to see it.
    I was dismayed, thinking of the occasion when my father had given it to me. I either had to call to them and ask them to give it to me or to lose it. I made up my mind that I could not shout to them from the tree. I would call at the house and concoct some story about its blowing over my head—which it had done—and I certainly would not tell them that inquisitiveness had made me climb a tree to spy on them.
    I slid down to the foot of the tree and in my haste grazed my hand which started to bleed a little. While I was staring at it ruefully Stirling came towards me.
    “Oak trees have, their uses,” he said.
    “What do you mean?”
    “You know very well. You were spying on the tea party.”
    “How could you know that unless you were spying too?”
    “It’s less shocking for me to climb trees than girls, you know.”
    “So you were spying on them.”
    “No. Like you I was merely taking a polite look.”
    “You were interested enough to climb a tree and look over the wall!”
    “Let’s say my motives were similar to yours. But we have to retrieve the scarf. Come on. I’ll go with you. As your deputy-guardian I can’t allow you to enter a strange house alone.”
    “How can we go in there?”
    “Simple. You ask to see Lady Cardew and tell her that your scarf is lying on her beautiful lawn.”
    “Do you think we should ask to see her? Perhaps we could tell one of the servants.”
    “You are too retiring. No. We’ll go in boldly and ask for Lady Cardew.”
    We had reached the gates. Stirling opened them and we went into a cobbled courtyard at the end of which was an archway. Stirling went through this; I followed. We were on the lawn.
    I felt uneasy. This was most unconventional, but Stirling was unconventional and unused to our formal manners; and as we crossed the grass towards the party at the tea table and they looked up in blank astonishment, I realized how very extraordinary our intrusion must seem.
     
    “Good afternoon,” said tuning.
    “I hope we don’t disturb you. We have come to retrieve my ward’s scarf.”
    The girl looked bewildered.
    “Scarf?” she