e back and strode
round the house to the stables. His fly was gone. He searched for a man
to question; there was none; they had all gone to supper or to bed. And
the fly was gone. He returned to the bridge with an uncomfortable
feeling of loneliness.

Something came upon him, an impulse or an instinct. There was still a
chance. She was not in the house, she was not in the garden. There was
one other place where she still might be--if indeed she had not fled
and left him desolate. Where? The answer seemed so easy to him, her
choice of a spot so obvious. If he found her anywhere that night he
would find her by the Pool, walking on the margin of its waters--where
he had seen her first and started at the thought that she was his
mother's phantom. He walked quickly up the valley, not thinking, his
whole being strung to wait for and to meet the answer to his one great
question.

On what things a man's life may seem to hang! A flutter of white through
the darkness! That was all. Harry saw it with a great leap of the heart.
His quick pace dropped to a leisurely saunter; he strolled on. She was
walking toward him. Presently she stopped, and, turning toward the
water, stood looking down into it. The Pool was very black that night,
the clouds thick overhead. But for her white frock he might never had
seen her at all. He came up to her and spoke in a careless voice.

"Where's Neeld?" he asked. "I can't find him anywhere."

"He's gone back to Fairholme, Harry. It was late. I was to say
good-night to you for him."

"And what have you done with Mina?" His voice was level, even, and
restrained.

"Mina's gone to Merrion." She paused before she added: "She was tired,
so I put her in your fly to go up the hill."

There was silence for a moment. Then he asked: "Did you tell the fly to
come back again?"

Silence again, and then a voice of deceptive meekness, of hidden mirth,
answered him: "No, Harry."

"I knew you'd be here, if anywhere."

"Well, I was sure you'd come here to look for me, before you gave me
up." She put out her hands and he took them in his. "It was all true
that you said about me, all abominably true."

He did not contradict her.

"That's why I'm here," she went on. "When you've feelings like that,
it's your duty not to run away from the place that excites them, but to
stay there and fight them down manfully."

"I agree," said Harry gravely. "When you've basely deceived and tricked
somebody it's cowardly