the great easter secret, which merle had surprised and preserved with so much difficulty, was out at last. clive's father and mother were coming to devonshire for a holiday; they had taken rooms at a farm in chagmouth, and they had not only arranged for their own son to join them, but they had also asked mavis and merle to be their visitors. the girls thought that no invitation could have been more delightfully acceptable. they adored chagmouth, and the saturdays they managed to spend there were always red-letter days, so the prospect of three whole weeks in this el dorado sent their spirits up to fizzing-over point.

"bevis will be at grimbal's farm!"

"and tudor will be at home!"

"the castletons are expecting morland and claudia!"

"and, of course, fay will be there, and tattie, and the colvilles!"

"goody! what a lovely tribe of us to go out picnics!"

"we'll have the time of our lives!"

burswood farm, where mr. and mrs. percy tremayne had taken rooms, was on the hillside above chagmouth. it was a delightful spot, with that airy feeling about it that comes from looking down upon your neighbours' chimneys.

"i wouldn't live in chagmouth, not if you paid me hundreds a year!" declared mrs. treasure, their landlady. "once i'm up here, here i stay! i've not been in the town for over six months. i go on sundays to the little chapel close by, and if i want shops we get out the gig and drive into kilvan or durracombe. it isn't worth the climb back from chagmouth. i carried william up when he was a baby, and it nearly killed me. i set him down in his cradle and i said: 'there, my boy! i don't go down to chagmouth again till you can walk back yourself!' and i didn't! he was three years old before i went—even to the post office. how do i manage about stamps? why, the postman brings them for me and takes my letters. the grocers' carts come round from kilvan, and the butcher calls once a week, and what can you want more? i say when i've got a nice place like this to live in i'll stay here, and not worry myself with climbing up and down hill."

though mavis and merle might not hold with mrs. treasure's depreciation of chagmouth, they thoroughly agreed with her eulogy of burswood. there was a view of the sea from the farm, and it had an old-fashioned garden with beehives and hedges of fuchsia and blue veronica, and at the back there was a small fir wood, with clumps of primroses and opening bluebells. the girls christened it 'elfland.'

"you can almost see the fairies here," said mavis. "why is it that some places feel so much more romantic than others?"

"because you're in the right mood, i suppose. this is almost as nice as

blackthorn bower."

"not quite. nothing can ever come up to that! when bevis gets the warren he's going to build up the bower again."

"why doesn't he do it now? the glyn williams would let him if he wanted.

it's his property."

"he wouldn't care to ask them; especially after what happened there between him and tudor."

"they've forgotten that, surely!"

"well, i sympathise with bevis. he doesn't care to interfere with anything until the warren is really his own. i think he feels they'd laugh at the bower, and so they would!"

"it's not in their line, of course."

however much we may love old and familiar scenes, there is always a novelty in something new, and the bird's-eye aspect of chagmouth was attractive, especially to those whose young limbs did not mind the climb. mr. and mrs. percy tremayne were most enthusiastic about their quarters. they were charming people, and ready to fall in with the young folk's plans and give them a thoroughly happy holiday. they had brought a motor- bicycle and side-car, and took some excursions round the neighbourhood, going over often to durracombe to see dr. and mrs. tremayne, glad to have the opportunity of a private chat with them while their lively son was safely picnicking with mavis and merle. picnics were the established order of the day. the girls declared that society at chagmouth this easter began with a big s. the castletons were a host in themselves. they were all at home, and all equally fascinating. musical mavis attached herself to claudia with a great admiration, and merle found a devoted knight in ten-year-old madox, who clung to her with the persistency of a chestnut burr, chiefly because she had the charity to answer his perpetual questions. "the interrogation mark," as he was called by his own family, was a typical castleton, and most cherubic of countenance, though his curls had been sheared in deference to school, spoiling him, so his father declared, for artistic purposes. he was a mixture of mischief and romance, and merle, who accepted his temporary allegiance, never quite knew whether his embraces were marks of genuine affection or were designed for the chance of dropping pebbles down her back.

some delightful friends of the castletons were also spending a holiday in rooms at chagmouth—miss lindsay, an artist, and lorraine forrester, a chum of claudia's, both of whom were sketching the quaint streets and the quay and the harbour with the wildest enthusiasm. morland had also taken a sudden fancy for painting, and insisted upon going out with them daily, producing some quite pretty little impressionistic pictures, with a touch of his father's style about them. in morland the family talent ran high but never rose to genius. his touch on the piano was perfect. he scribbled poems in private. his achievements, however, in either music, art, or poetry were insufficient to justify taking one of them for a vocation.

"i'd rather make him a chimney-sweep!" declared mr. castleton eloquently. "the public nowadays don't appreciate pictures! they'll look at them in galleries, especially when the admission is free, but you can't get them to buy. they hang their drawing-rooms with cheap prints instead of water- colours, and go to the photographers instead of the portrait-painter. if you can design something to advertise mustard or cocoa you may make a little money, but not by pure art! it's as dead as the ancient greeks. this is a commercial age. music's as bad. your pianists are glad to take posts to play at the cinemas! i wish claudia success; but her training is the business of the college, not mine, and they'll have to bring her out. i've nothing to do with it. no; morland must realise he's living in the twentieth century, and has to earn his bread and butter. art doesn't pay, and that's the fact! have it as a hobby if you wish, but don't depend upon it!"

so morland, who, like many young fellows of artistic calibre, had a general affection for the muses but no very marked vocation for anything, had been pitchforked into engineering, and was making quite tolerable progress, and would possibly support himself later on, but always with the feeling that life was commonplace and unromantic, and that a splendid vision had been somewhere just round the corner, only unfortunately missed. he allowed his artistic temperament to run loose during the holidays. he would go up to bella vista and play for hours on the macleods' new grand piano, improvising beautiful airs, and sending fay into raptures.

"why don't you write them down right away?" she demanded.

"what's the use? no one would publish them if i did. the publishers are fed up with young composers wanting a hearing. i've made up my mind to be just an amateur—nothing more."

"i'm not sure," ventured mrs. macleod, "whether you won't have the best of it. after all, 'amateur' means 'lover,' and the art and the music that you pursue for pure pleasure will be more to you than what you might have had to produce for the sake of bread and butter. why must our standard in these things always be the commercial one, 'does it pay?' the fact of making it pay often degrades it. my theory is that a man can have his business, and love his hobby just as he loves his wife, without turning it into £ s. d. look at my husband! in his own office there isn't any one in america knows more about motor fittings, but once outside the office his heart and soul is in painting. i believe he's a happier man for doing both!"

"do you really think so? it cheers me up! when i'm a full-blown engineer, perhaps i'll make enough to buy a grand piano at any rate. that's one way of looking at it. it's awfully kind of you to let me come here and thump away on yours."

"we enjoy having you, so use it whenever you like. it's always absolutely at your disposal."

morland was not the only one of the party who was amusing his leisure hours. bevis also had hobbies. he had taken up photography, had turned an attic at grimbal's farm into a dark room, and was trying many experiments. moreover, his lawyers had at last yielded to his urgent entreaties and had allowed him to buy a small sailing yacht. she was not a racing craft, or remarkably smart in any way, but she was his own, and the joy of possession was supreme. he rechristened her the kittiwake, painting in her new name with much satisfaction, and he made trial trips in her along the coast as far as port sennen. he was extremely anxious to take mavis and merle and clive with him, but that was strictly prohibited by mrs. tremayne, who would not allow either her son or her visitors to venture.

"it's too big a risk, and i know what clive is! young talland can swim like a fish if he upsets his yacht, but you can't!"

"we can swim!" protested merle.

"a little, close by the shore, i daresay, but that's nothing if you're plunged into deep water. i can't take the responsibility of letting you go. never mind! we'll make up a party one day and take a motor-boat with a proper experienced boatman. young talland can join us then if he likes."

mavis and merle were disappointed almost to the point of tears. they had duly admired the kittiwake in the harbour, and they simply longed to go on board. it seemed so particularly tempting when they had such a cordial invitation, and so aggravating to be obliged to decline.

"cousin nora's very nervous," urged mavis in extenuation. "she'd be afraid of our being drowned if we went on a duck-pond."

bevis passed over the slur on his seamanship.

"it's all right!" he answered quietly, but there was a certain set obstinate look about his mouth which the girls knew well, and which meant that he intended if possible to get his own way, though he said nothing more at the time.

[illustration: he kept them dawdling]

it was perhaps as well for everybody's peace of mind that he should not take clive boating, for the boy was venturesome and mischievous, and rather out of hand except when his father was by. he often made the girls' hair almost stand on end by his pranks at the verge of the cliffs, and was sometimes the cause of considerable bad language among the sailors when he interfered with their nets or tar-pots down on the quay. it was a relief to mavis and merle when mr. tremayne took him out in the side-car, and they knew that for some hours at least they need not be responsible for his behaviour. they were both fond of botany, and were enthusiastically making collections of wild flowers to press for their holiday task. bevis was a good ally in this respect, and would often call in at burswood farm with some uncommon specimen which he thought they had not yet found for themselves. he had come on this errand one morning, and was helping mavis to screw up her pressing boards, when mrs. tremayne happened to mention the scarcity of shells in the neighbourhood of chagmouth.

"i've hardly found any!" she remarked. "and i'm so annoyed, because it happens to be my particular hobby. i'm collecting them. i suppose the coast is too rocky and they get broken. they're always very local things."

"there's just one place i know where you might find some," said bevis. "it's a particular patch of sand near gurgan point. i saw some beauties there a while ago. i'll show you where it is with pleasure if you like."

"oh, thanks! that would be delightful," beamed mrs. tremayne. "the girls and i could go to-day if you can take us. my husband and clive are out with the motor-bike, so it's a splendid opportunity."

"let me see! the tide should be just right this afternoon," agreed bevis cheerfully. "mavis and merle know the way to gurgan point. if they'll take you there and down the path to the cove, i'll come round in the yacht and meet you. shall we say at three o'clock?"

"that would be exactly nice time after lunch."

"very well, i'll be there."

bevis went back to grimbal's farm chuckling to himself, though he did not betray the cause of his amusement to anybody. he hunted out a hamper and packed it with cups and saucers, a methylated spirit-lamp, and other picnic requisites. on his way to the quay he stopped at the confectioner's and bought cakes and fancy biscuits. he placed these comestibles inside the hamper, and stowed it away in the locker of the kittiwake. at two o'clock he was out of the harbour, and was off in the direction of gurgan point.

mavis and merle and cousin nora, bearing baskets in which to place shells, had a pleasant walk along the cliffs, and descended the path to the trysting-place. they found bevis waiting for them in the cove. he had moored the kittiwake to a buoy, and now led the way over the sands to a sort of little peninsula that jutted out into the sea. here he had beached his dinghy.

"this is the shell-bank. you'll find heaps of them here!" he said.

undoubtedly he had brought them to the right place. there were shells in abundance, and of many different kinds, delicate pink ones, tiny cowries, twisted wentletraps, scallops, screw-shells, and some like mother-of- pearl. mrs. tremayne was in raptures, and went down on her knees to gather them. there was such a tempting variety that it was difficult to stop, and in the excitement of the quest the time simply fled.

"i haven't brought my watch!" declared mrs. tremayne once.

"oh, it's quite early yet!" bevis assured her. "i've lighted the spirit- lamp, and i'm going to make you some tea."

he had carried the hamper on to the sands, and was busy setting out his cups and saucers in a sheltered place behind some rocks, 'to be out of the wind,' as he carefully explained. when his kettle boiled he filled the tea-pot, and summoned his guests.

"you've chosen a snug spot!" said mrs. tremayne, walking along with her eyes on the sands still looking for shells.

and merle, who was watching a white line of advancing waves, added:

"lovely and snug, only i hope we shan't get—"

she meant to say 'surrounded,' but bevis pulled such a fearful face at her behind cousin nora's back that she stopped short and let him finish the sentence.

"we shan't get shells while we're having tea, of course! you can look for some more afterwards if you haven't enough."

"oh, surely, we have heaps and heaps! and simply exquisite ones! these tiny yellow babies are just perfect. i like them better than the big grandfathers," exulted mavis.

bevis made a polite but leisurely host. he insisted on boiling some more water, which was not really wanted, but which took a long time, and he spun out his own tea interminably.

"it's so jolly here under the rocks!" he declared. "i like the dolce far niente—makes one think of lotus-eaters and all the rest of it. shall i help you sort your shells? you could wash them in the tea-cups. it's no use carrying home surplus sand. there's some water left in the kettle."

on one pretext or another he kept them dawdling under the rocks, till mrs. tremayne at last rose up and declared they really must be starting back for the cove.

"we shall be having the tide coming in if we don't mind," she said. "why!

look!"

she might well exclaim, for while they had been sitting with their backs to the sea the water had all the while been lapping slowly in and had changed their peninsula into an island. they were entirely surrounded, and quite a wide channel lay between themselves and the shore. mrs. tremayne looked much alarmed, but bevis took the matter with the utmost calm.

"it's all right! i've the dinghy here, and i can row you to the yacht. i'd land you in the cove if i could, but it really wouldn't be safe because of the rocks. i'll sail you all back to chagmouth and run you into the harbour."

there was evidently nothing else to be done, and though cousin nora might not enjoy the prospect of yachting, she was obliged to accept bevis's offer.

it was quite a pleasant little excursion from gurgan point to the harbour; the sea was luckily calm, but there was sufficient breeze to enable the kittiwake to skim over the water like her sea-gull namesake. the girls, who by this time had grasped the depths of their friend's plot, enjoyed the situation immensely. they were actually having their coveted sail in the very company of the dear lady who had so expressly forbidden the jaunt, and all without the slightest friction or trouble. bevis, indeed, was posing as rescuer and accepting grateful thanks.

"it's a lesson to us all to watch the tide and not sit talking with our backs to the sea!" said cousin nora virtuously.

"it is indeed!" answered bevis, so gravely that merle had to stuff her handkerchief into her mouth to stifle her chortles of mirth.

he brought them into the harbour, and helped them to land on the steps of the jetty.

"wasn't i clever?" he whispered, as he handed mavis her basket of shells.

"when i really make up my mind to get a thing, i get it!"