coming and she doesn t see them for she s talking to but what s the matter with him he s looking at miss cap as if he knew her and now she s looking too there off goes his hat and she s speaking and s like to faint and now they ve took the road to the station and miss s going home by the lord said a few moments later to her how proud miss have in she just said good morning sir i as if he was dirt and without a of her eye on his face and she looked at poor soul as if she d been p i � tm not the frost that fell nor tis that makes me cry but my s heart grown to me j � v yes here i am said the young man but i thought you might be dismal here by yourself � and by jove you look he added with sudden concern you are as white as your frock v and he touched one of her of muslin and may i not be as pale as i please here where i came on purpose to be quiet f said with an angry stamp of her little foot you seem to have had visitors all the same said for i don t suppose came to call on anyone in the perhaps it s part of his game at general post to come down here when he knows your father is looking for him in town where did you see him said continuing the task in which had surprised her and which happened to be that of and arranging her father s books he got into the train that i got out of said at me as if he saw a ghost there is nothing on earth that you less resemble said and you are wrong in supposing he came to look for father or me she added below her breath for he on a visit to a person in the village and how is she added with an abrupt change of tone i don t know and i don t care said the young fellow and snatched her and threw it down then caught her hands and held them he said for once and all you shall give me my answer to day she looked up and the ardent love the power the protection of s look and attitude could not but strike her in contrast with the cold neglect the outrage that the man she loved had put upon her oh she said and somehow that here was her mother s story with frank over again and something in her voice � more of pity for herself than him � struck the young fellow oddly and he put her back the better to search her face who is it he said pain his voice and for once making it the colour flew into her face the light to her eyes in that moment however it might disgrace her flesh and blood bore witness to the truth of how in her heart a grace hath reigned that nothing else could bring and read the signs surely and truly he dropped her hands and went to the window coming back just as she stooped to pick up her he loves you he said still in that stem voice so to s ears no then god help you i he said and went out o s and she echoed his and shivered a sense of cold as she stood alone was she to be left by � by by by � ah this last was the bitterest of all with a bow and a good morning sir i to represent their � by all save the dear old whom she had betrayed when she loved his enemy she down by his chair bnt even as her lips to the leather knew that however faithfully he had loved her he was not first with her now she think of him tenderly she was conscious of clinging to as her one refuge in the future but for the moment she felt only a raging desire to be alone beyond sight or sound of human voices the fact that major not only loved and rode away but rode away with another woman her cool green hollow beckoned her even across blinding fields of heat and it was safe it was secret the only soul who knew of its existence was by now far away and might search the woods for a month before ever he found it and her she caught up her white and went by the way that she had passed shame her at every step as she thought of how swiftly she had sped to the one sided in which she had taken passionate farewell of a ghost that in point of fact was a very substantial body running away she laughed aloud climbed to her seat and looked down the long and beautiful that she had so long reckoned her own and which major had also seemed to think at his disposal then the moment having at last come when she was alone with her misery her shame turning her cheek to the moss of the tree p wept e a she cried out no more than her father would have done under equal punishment but her body trembled as if shaken by a violent hand and was it a ghost that in the afternoon sunshine drew near and stood looking down on her with such misery in his eyes as her hidden ones could not have matched so had he seen her mother once and a word from him had ended that one short bitter space of a sunny life and she had been happy happy afterwards to the very end and now a word from him would save her child and he neither willed nor dared 