the beast or his rider at
play. Finally brought up on the other side of Wych Hazel, when
Rollo spoke.

'Miss Kennedy, I have the honour to present Mrs. Coles, who
wishes to be known to you.'

As Miss Kennedy bent her head, she had one glimpse of a long
pale face, surrounded with bandeaux of fair hair, which looked
towards her eagerly. Before she had well lifted her head again
her horse was moving, and the next instant dashing along at
full speed; the bay close alongside. The mills were almost
passed; a very few minutes brought them quite away from the
settlement, and they began to mount to higher ground by a
steep hilly path.

'Well!'--said Hazel, looking at her companion.

'Well?' said Rollo, innocently.

She laughed.

'As if I did not know better than that!'

'I wish I did,' said Rollo. 'Now, do you know what you are
coming to?'

'No, not a bit. I said I wouldn't come through that place--but
when you are in a strange land--and in charge of a--strange!--
cavalier--'

'You are coming to the house of my old nurse in the hills a
quarter of a mile further on. I did not understand you to mean
that you would not go through _that_ place.'

'Does the man keep another Hollow for himself?' said Wych
Hazel. 'I am glad we are going to the hills, if only to help
me forget the valley. How can people live so! And oh! how can
people let them!'

'This is a concomitant of great civilization. I saw no such
place when I was in Norway,' Dane observed.

'And was--what is her name?--living there when you came home?'

'Gyda? Down in the Hollow! O no. I had established her up here
in comfort before I left her.'

More and more lovely, wild and lonely, the scenery grew; the
road getting deeper among the hills and winding higher and
higher with the head of the valley. Then they came to the
cottage, the only one in sight; a low house of grey stone, set
with its back against the woods which covered the hill. A
little cleared and cultivated ground close to it, and in front
the road. Rollo dismounted, fastened his horse, and took Wych
Hazel down.

'Do you like to come to such places?' he asked as he was tying
the brown mare to the fence.

'I know very little about them,' she said. '_This_ looks like a
place to come to.'

'It is unique,' said Rollo, as he led the way in.

He opened the door softly. An utterance of joy Wych Hazel
heard, before she could see the person from whom it came.
Rollo turned and presented Miss Kenn