ch was doing that kindly service for
Elfride and her mother now.

Scrambling higher into the hedge and stretching her neck further over
the furze, Elfride beheld the individual signified. He was walking
leisurely along the little green path at the bottom, beside the stream,
a satchel slung upon his left hip, a stout walking-stick in his hand,
and a brown-holland sun-hat upon his head. The satchel was worn and old,
and the outer polished surface of the leather was cracked and peeling
off.

Knight having arrived over the hills to Castle Boterel upon the top of a
crazy omnibus, preferred to walk the remaining two miles up the valley,
leaving his luggage to be brought on.

Behind him wandered, helter-skelter, a boy of whom Knight had briefly
inquired the way to Endelstow; and by that natural law of physics which
causes lesser bodies to gravitate towards the greater, this boy had
kept near to Knight, and trotted like a little dog close at his heels,
whistling as he went, with his eyes fixed upon Knight's boots as they
rose and fell.

When they had reached a point precisely opposite that in which Mrs. and
Miss Swancourt lay in ambush, Knight stopped and turned round.

'Look here, my boy,' he said.

The boy parted his lips, opened his eyes, and answered nothing.

'Here's sixpence for you, on condition that you don't again come within
twenty yards of my heels, all the way up the valley.'

The boy, who apparently had not known he had been looking at Knight's
heels at all, took the sixpence mechanically, and Knight went on again,
wrapt in meditation.

'A nice voice,' Elfride thought; 'but what a singular temper!'

'Now we must get indoors before he ascends the slope,' said Mrs.
Swancourt softly. And they went across by a short cut over a stile,
entering the lawn by a side door, and so on to the house.

Mr. Swancourt had gone into the village with the curate, and Elfride
felt too nervous to await their visitor's arrival in the drawing-room
with Mrs. Swancourt. So that when the elder lady entered, Elfride made
some pretence of perceiving a new variety of crimson geranium, and
lingered behind among the flower beds.

There was nothing gained by this, after all, she thought; and a few
minutes after boldly came into the house by the glass side-door. She
walked along the corridor, and entered the drawing-room. Nobody was
there.

A window at the angle of the room opened directly into an octagonal
conservatory, enclosing