ngly removed for me! No more need to fret about the coming
interview with Midwinter; and plenty of time to consider my next
proceedings, now that Miss Milroy and her precious swain had come
together again. Would you believe it, the letter, or the man himself (I
don't know which), had taken such a hold on me that, though I tried and
tried, I could think of nothing else; and this when I had every reason
to fear that Miss Milroy was in a fair way of changing her name to
Armadale, and when I knew that my heavy debt of obligation to her was
not paid yet? Was there ever such perversity? I can't account for it;
can you?

"The dusk of the evening came at last. I looked out of the window--and
there he was!

"I joined him at once; the people of the house, as before, being too
much absorbed in their eating and drinking to notice anything else. 'We
mustn't be seen together here,' I whispered. 'I must go on first, and
you must follow me.'

"He said nothing in the way of reply. What was going on in his mind
I can't pretend to guess; but, after coming to his appointment, he
actually hung back as if he was half inclined to go away again.

"'You look as if you were afraid of me,' I said.

"'I _am_ afraid of you,' he answered--'of you, and of myself.'

"It was not encouraging; it was not complimentary. But I was in such
a frenzy of curiosity by this time that, if he had been ruder still, I
should have taken no notice of it. I led the way a few steps toward the
new buildings, and stopped and looked round after him.

"'Must I ask it of you as a favor,' I said, 'after your giving me your
promise, and after such a letter as you have written to me?'

"Something suddenly changed him; he was at my side in an instant. 'I beg
your pardon, Miss Gwilt; lead the way where you please.' He dropped back
a little after that answer, and I heard him say to himself, 'What _is_
to be _will_ be. What have I to do with it, and what has she?'

"It could hardly have been the words, for I didn't understand them--it
must have been the tone he spoke in, I suppose, that made me feel a
momentary tremor. I was half inclined, without the ghost of a reason for
it, to wish him good-night, and go in again. Not much like me, you will
say. Not much, indeed! It didn't last a moment. Your darling Lydia soon
came to her senses again.

"I led the way toward the unfinished cottages, and the country beyond.
It would have been much more to my taste to have had him into