her attendance at some, if not all of the meetings, as a desirable and
exhilarating change after her laborious season's work in town. It was
pleasant to have won her way so far in high places that her health of
body and mind should be thus considered--pleasant, less as personal
gratification, than that it casually reflected a proof of her good
judgment in a course which everybody among her kindred had condemned by
calling a foolhardy undertaking.

And she might go without the restraint of ceremony.
Unconventionality--almost eccentricity--was de rigueur for one who had
been first heard of as a poetess; from whose red lips magic romance had
since trilled for weeks to crowds of listeners, as from a perennial
spring.

So Ethelberta went, after a considerable pondering how to get there
without the needless sacrifice either of dignity or cash. It would be
inconsiderate to the children to spend a pound on a brougham when as much
as she could spare was wanted for their holiday. It was almost too far
too walk. She had, however, decided to walk, when she met a boy with a
donkey, who offered to lend it to her for three shillings. The animal
was rather sad-looking, but Ethelberta found she could sit upon the pad
without discomfort. Considering that she might pull up some distance
short of the castle, and leave the ass at a cottage before joining her
four-wheeled friends, she struck the bargain and rode on her way.

This was, first by a path on the shore where the tide dragged huskily up
and down the shingle without disturbing it, and thence up the steep crest
of land opposite, whereon she lingered awhile to let the ass breathe. On
one of the spires of chalk into which the hill here had been split was
perched a cormorant, silent and motionless, with wings spread out to dry