ner of the dark winding path, he came suddenly upon a lady seated on a
bench, so close to the narrow path that he almost touched her in passing.
She seemed to have sat down for a moment to do something to her hat,
which was lying in her lap, her hands busied with it.

A faint cry escaped her, and she rose up. It was caused partly by
emotion, partly by surprise at seeing him, for she did not know he was
within a hundred miles of the place. And very probably she would have
liked to box her own ears for showing any. The hat fell from her knees
as she rose, and both stooped for it.

"Forgive me," he said. "I fear I have startled you."

"I am waiting for papa," she answered, in hasty apology for being found
there. And Lord Hartledon, casting his eyes some considerable distance
ahead, discerned the indistinct forms of two persons talking together. He
understood the situation at once. Dr. Ashton and his daughter had been to
the cottages; and the doctor had halted on their return to speak to a
day-labourer going home from his work, Anne walking slowly on.

And there they stood face to face, Anne Ashton and her deceitful lover!
How their hearts beat to pain, how utterly oblivious they were of
everything in life save each other's presence, how tumultuously confused
were mind and manner, both might remember afterwards, but certainly were
not conscious of then. It was a little glimpse of Eden. A corner of the
dark curtain thrown between them had been raised, and so unexpectedly
that for the moment nothing else was discernible in the dazzling light.

Forget! Not in that instant of sweet confusion, during which nothing
seemed more real than a dream. He was the husband of another; she was
parted from him for ever; and neither was capable of deliberate thought
or act that could intrench on the position, or tend to return, even
momentarily, to the past. And yet there they stood with beating hearts,
and eyes that betrayed their own tale--that the marriage and the parting
were in one sense but a hollow mockery, and their love was indelible as
of old.

Each had been "forgetting" to the utmost of the poor power within, in
accordance with the high principles enshrined in either heart. Yet what
a mockery that forgetting seemed, now that it was laid before them naked
and bare! The heart turning sick to faintness at the mere sight of each
other, the hands trembling at the mutual touch, the wistful eyes shining
with a glance that too surely