"What made you come?" she said, rebukingly. He stopped short, looking keenly at her white face. "You ask what made me come? Did you suppose that I was going to moon about a London hotel indefinitely until you replied to my letter through the post? No, you know me better than that, my precious. I gave you time to go and see Conroy, and then I followed up my written word with my very self. I arrived at Carronlea-found, as I expected, that you had gone to Wishfield—and started to meet you on your homeward way. But like an ass, I took a wrong turning and have been wandering about for ever so long. I was lying down in the heather by the roadside to rest when I saw you and Sultana top the ridge, come down a little way and disappear. I started at once in pursuit, I saw the mare grazing, and knew I had found you." He looked about him in delight.

"What a

glorious place! And what a pretty pool! Wild swans too! Could there be a more enchanting spot in which to meet!"

CHAPTER XXX

BY THE POOL

“And what am I to you? A steady hand
To hold, a steadfast heart to trust withal;
Merely a man that loves you, and will stand
By you, whate'er befall."

JEAN INGELOW.

VERNON stood regarding him so drearily that the ardent lover was naturally more than a trifle cast down. "What makes you look so tragic, Vernon darling?” he asked earnestly. "You did understand? You know there is nothing-nothing in the world between us now! And I have proved my devotion to you-proved that I can't live without you, by crossing the world to bring you back? Oh my own girl, you know that you belong to me, don't you? Haven't I played fair? Haven't I treated you as a gentleman should treat the woman he most honors? Haven't I earned my reward? Is there anything more that I could have done?"

Her face quivered. It was all true. He had been a pattern lover.

"Oh Lionel!" she faltered.

He considered her wistfully.

"I haven't offended you by coming to you the moment that I could look you in the face with no woman for a bar between us?" he asked, a little defiantly. 66 No, no, of course not. Have a little patience with me, please. I-I am, a little bewildered. Give me time Shall we sit down and talk, and be-be I-feel such a fool, but I don't know what to

to think. sensible?

say to you."

1

66

Surely there isn't much to say," he interrupted passionately. "I know you love me. You yourself have told me that there is nobody elsethe barriers are down-it only remains for me to take you, darling.”

His arms were round her in a moment, his face downbent, his lips seeking hers. She gave a cry-not a scream, but a low, broken moan, as she wrenched round her face away from him. Lionel, stop, stop-let me go! Do you hear? Don't hold me! It's cowardly to hold me against my will!"

66

66

Against your will!" he said slowly, his arms dropping at his sides: "What do you mean, Vernon?"

She was shaking and sobbing tearlessly with indignation. "I don't know what I mean," she breathlessly brought out. "But you go too fast. I will not be

rushed like this. It's-it's horrible!"

"I beg your pardon," he replied, checked, and deeply mystified. He had read in books that the modern woman needs new methods of wooing, but he really thought that he had been patient long enough. He said so with some heat.

The girl, half turned away from him, was seeking to control herself. "I'm very sorry," she said at last. "But you have come too soon.

I-I was not ready

I wish you had not

"But in the name of common sense, what was there to wait for?" he pardonably cried.

"There is only me to wait for, and I admit that I am not worth it," said Vernon, with some dignity. "If you think so too, there is no more to be said.”

"Vernon!" he cried, full of remorse and tenderness.

"Forgive me, darling, I have blundered, most unwittingly."

"You see," she began, bringing out her words with an effort, because of the shaking of her voice, “life for me has moved very fast lately. I am bewildered. I have come out of that far-away country and life, into this wonderful England: and here, in England, I have suddenly grown up. I was a child, when I left you and Golden Ridge. And this has happened to me so quickly-womanhood has come upon me like a surprise. And I am afraid."

He thought that he understood at last, and began with much satisfaction to assure her that she need fear from him nothing at all. He would be the most deferential, the most considerate of lovers. He had not realized what she was feeling, but he loved her, he adored her for her delicacy. Not for worlds would he offend it: and so on.

She listened, her mind half fixed upon him, but half upon what Mr. Conroy had said. She was to give Lionel no definite promise until she had seen Jem.

"You see, Lionel, I have not promised yet to marry you," she succeeded in saying at length.

"No, but you mean to," he cried out, like a man suddenly stabbed.

"I really, truly-I am not sure," she faltered. “And”—holding out her arms to fend him off from her-" and if you cannot be patient with me until I see my way clear, then it must be all over between us. I will not be rushed. I will not!" she cried vehemently.

Ah, surely the Spirits of the Waste and Weald had tricked her cruelly! Here she had fled for the comfort of that dumb nature which speaks so tenderly to

those who hear.

And here had found her the crisis

of her destiny, and she was reeling under the shock of revelation which the pressure of Lionel's

produced upon her.

arms had

She was not strong enough to marry him. . . and if she did not marry him what should she do? Whither should she go from the pursuing thought of Jem?

Lionel was completely puzzled. He could not understand her attitude. What had happened to her, what idea had she got into her head which caused this peculiar conduct towards her lover? How often he had laughed at the complaints, in ballads, by lovesick swains, of their fair one's cruelty or caprice! Was this just nothing but caprice? Was it the frills which the maiden unconsciously puts on to assert her power before surrendering?

"You see," continued Vernon, seeking wildly around for plausible reasons for her unseasonable coyness, 66 you see, since you left, we have had such a terrible time! I never attended an inquest in my life before! And it was such a shock! Quite a young woman, only a few months married-and they say she committed suicide because she was so unhappy."

"What!" cried Lionel, completely thrown off his guard. "But that is nonsense! The verdict was:

'Death from Misadventure.” ”

Vernon turned and stared upon him. He had grown crimson, and the veins stood out upon his forehead. "How do you know that?" she slowly asked. “You had left before the news of her death reached us.'

A light flashed upon him, a new light respecting her coldness. "I see!" he cried. "It is that priest who has betrayed me! He has told you——"