she was not near enough to him to observe he had a face on which in spite of his efforts to make it grave there was a tender smile tm afraid i frightened you miss by my premature appearance he said as he came up and took her hand visitors have no right to come at such hours but the fact is i travelled by the night mail i am very glad to see you mr very she said and so i am sure will mr and mrs be but we didn t expect � that is you expected of course instead of me he said which no doubt is a disappointment i did not say that mr though mr is a great favourite with all of us and so he ought to be for he deserves it he is i believe one of the best of men as i am sure he is the best of friends but the fact is his hands are just now too full of affairs � business matters � to admit of his coming down matters connected with poor mr of course oh mr how that shocked us all i i was afraid it would but we thought it better to tell you the whole truth and then they fell to talking about their dead friend from what told her of the matter she soon lost that feeling of horror concerning his end which the idea of suicide once so heroic now so always upon one point on which he mr had been undoubtedly insane and was therefore on all others he had shown himself to the last the kindly and beneath the rugged surface tender hearted man that he really was he loved you said as though he had been your own father trembled partly because this speech awakened certain memories partly because her companion in his earnestness and had called her for the first time by her christian name he had done so unconsciously no doubt but the sound of the more familiar title from s lips had a strange attraction for her his voice indeed was very sweet and low and from the nature of the subject confidential they walked together side by side he had picked up her for her and was carrying her basket in one hand but the other somehow had sought her own that he should have been attached to you he continued can surprise no one but his last da � s great regard a much less y o ji c i� to i � i i � i a from a thorn could it lave been otherwise that is i mean said of the enthusiasm her tone had involuntarily displayed did you not risk your life for him mr my name is walter returned the young man very gently would you mind calling me walter as did not reply to this question it must be taken for panted that she did not mind as air was so fond of you and had a regard for me went on it was only natural that he should associate us together in his mind or perhaps he guessed something � a secret i had never told him since i had not dared to tell it even to you they walked on in silence but very slowly there was a in her ears yet could hear their feet moving through the fresh grass the low of the cows in the the song of a distant it was because he guessed my secret and wished me to tell it to you for which i had not hitherto had the courage that he sent me hither as the bearer of his last farewell he said to give my dear love to her and if as i think you love one another kiss her for me and here walter kissed her that of course was a sacred duty having performed it you would think perhaps that there was an end of the affair but that was not the case he followed up the caress by by kissing his fair companion upon his own account and somehow or another though was by no means resolute in her resistance those unfortunate fell out of the basket during the process i have loved you darling from the first instant i set eyes on you whispered this impulsive young man and though i am too much of a gentleman i hope to repeat a lady s exact words uttered in a moment of confidence i may say that murmured something that had a similar tendency at this particular spot the l them and the farm happened to be thick and neither of them for some moments evinced any disposition to proceed where the veil of was thinner indeed they might have stopped there much longer but for a summons from the garden from the mistress of the house herself e � la el � la breakfast breakfast she shouted in her cheerful tones they were dose by though she could not see them and it was really rather embarrassing for them to come out as it were of and show themselves however they had to do it what mr good gracious is it really you i believe so ma am said the young gentleman modestly though indeed he aa m a tumult of happiness that he might well have been oi v a v we have to you � � o c q l aa x a but where are the in his confusion the too happy young man had not perceived that his basket was empty its late contents lay where the hedge was yet not more out of eight than out of mind oh never mind the exclaimed mrs pray walk in mr and do you go upstairs and change your boots immediately because the grass is so wet being a woman she of course took in the situation at a glance and offered 