showed for the first time outwardly that he was not altogether unworthy of her. He wore long water-boots reaching above his knees, and, instead of making a circuit to find a bridge

ary of the grounds, he continued in the same direct line to traverse the alluvial valley, full of brooks and tributaries to the main stream-in former times quite impassable, and impassable in winter now. Sometimes he would cross a deep gully on a plank not wider than the hand; at another time he ploughed his way through beds of spear-grass, where at a few feet

ing, Miss Christine Everard sat at a desk in her own chamber at Froom-

h! It runs in the blood of us, I suppose.' She alluded to a fact unknown to her lover, the clandestine marriage o

er 13

t eight? I name the early hour because it would suit me better than later on in the day. You will fi

INE EV

d the servant's footsteps returning along the lane, when she went round and met him in the passage.

as it was called-into the lane which led to the village. Christine came out this way, and after following the lane for a short distance entered upon a path within a belt of plantation, by which the church could be reached privately. She even avoided the churchyard gate, walking along to a place where the turf

impulse. They went up the aisle together, the bottle-green glass of the old lead quarries admitting but little light at that hour,

recognizing in Nicholas a neighbouring yeoman (for he lived aloofly in the next parish), advanced to her without revealing any surprise at her unusual reques

d repeated the same words t

nd, I have a serious reason for asking you to m

er between than upon either of them, and h

e said

are quit

d no

rather private,'

e your wi

adow, sir. I can call them

d Mr. Bealand, and turning again to Chr

I should answer that q

it is-highl

egan to loo

he rector asked; 'since t

-or at least he made it appear so; till Christine said impatiently, 'We are quite ready, M

d y

I rem

mething wrong in this,' he said. 'I cannot

sed Nicholas. 'I believe we are in a positio

age? I think not. I think she is mo

und to t

ervice. And let me entreat you two young people to do nothing so rash as this, even if b

age

was saying, is one I shall not be a party to your beginning with such light hearts, and I shall feel bound to put your father

las implored; but nothing would turn that obstinate rector. Sh

grant me one favour, and in return I'll promise you to do nothin

ou undertake

e looked at her. 'Do you wish

' he

door. On his way home, carrying the well-packed bag which was just now to go no further, the two men who wer

mid want us fo

swered through the hedge. 'I