ted, and were driven on in the direction from which she had just
come.

Phyllis was so conscience-stricken that she was at first inclined to
follow them; but a moment's reflection led her to feel that it would only
be bare justice to Matthaus to wait till he arrived, and explain candidly
that she had changed her mind--difficult as the struggle would be when
she stood face to face with him. She bitterly reproached herself for
having believed reports which represented Humphrey Gould as false to his
engagement, when, from what she now heard from his own lips, she gathered
that he had been living full of trust in her. But she knew well enough
who had won her love. Without him her life seemed a dreary prospect, yet
the more she looked at his proposal the more she feared to accept it--so
wild as it was, so vague, so venturesome. She had promised Humphrey
Gould, and it was only his assumed faithlessness which had led her to
treat that promise as nought. His solicitude in bringing her these gifts
touched her; her promise must be kept, and esteem must take the place of
love. She would preserve her self-respect. She would stay at home, and
marry him, and suffer.

Phyllis had thus braced herself to an exceptional fortitude when, a few
minutes later, the outline of Matthaus Tina appeared behind a field-gate,
over which he lightly leapt as she stepped forward. There was no evading
it, he pressed her to his breast.

'It is the first and last time!' she wildly thought as she stood
encircled by his arms.

How Phyllis got through the terrible ordeal of that night she could never
clearly recollect. She always attributed her success in carrying out her
resolve to her lover's honour, for as soon as she declared to him in
feeble words that she had changed her mind, and felt that she could not,
dared not, fly with him, he forbore to urge her, grieved as he was at her
decision. Unscrupulous pressure on his part, seeing how romantically she
had become attached to him, would no doubt have turned the balance in his
favour. But he did nothing to tempt her unduly or unfairly.

On her side, fearing for his safety, she begged him to remain. This, he
declared, could not be. 'I cannot break faith with my friend,' said he.
Had he stood alone he would have abandoned his plan. But Christoph, with
the boat and compass and chart, was waiting on the shore; the tide would
soon turn; his mother had been warned of his coming; go he must.

M