Go--go!' was all she said; but while she
spoke she held me so fast that, without violence, I could not have obeyed
her. At length, however, by some heroic effort, we tore ourselves apart,
and I rushed from the house.

I have a confused remembrance of seeing little Arthur running up the
garden-walk to meet me, and of bolting over the wall to avoid him--and
subsequently running down the steep fields, clearing the stone fences and
hedges as they came in my way, till I got completely out of sight of the
old hall and down to the bottom of the hill; and then of long hours spent
in bitter tears and lamentations, and melancholy musings in the lonely
valley, with the eternal music in my ears, of the west wind rushing
through the overshadowing trees, and the brook babbling and gurgling
along its stony bed; my eyes, for the most part, vacantly fixed on the
deep, chequered shades restlessly playing over the bright sunny grass at
my feet, where now and then a withered leaf or two would come dancing to
share the revelry; but my heart was away up the hill in that dark room
where she was weeping desolate and alone--she whom I was not to comfort,
not to see again, till years or suffering had overcome us both, and torn
our spirits from their perishing abodes of clay.

There was little business done that day, you may be sure. The farm was
abandoned to the labourers, and the labourers were left to their own
devices. But one duty must be attended to; I had not forgotten my
assault upon Frederick Lawrence; and I must see him to apologise for the
unhappy deed. I would fain have put it off till the morrow; but what if
he should denounce me to his sister in the meantime? No, no! I must ask
his pardon to-day, and entreat him to be lenient in his accusation, if
the revelation must be made. I deferred it, however, till the evening,
when my spirits were more composed, and when--oh, wonderful perversity of
human nature!--some faint germs of indefinite hopes were beginning to
rise in my mind; not that I intended to cherish them, after all that had
been said on the subject, but there they must lie for a while, uncrushed
though not encouraged, till I had learnt to live without them.

Arrived at Woodford, the young squire's abode, I found no little
difficulty in obtaining admission to his presence. The servant that
opened the door told me his master was very ill, and seemed to think it
doubtful whether he would be able to see me. I was not goi