ed to awake in the stillness, as she listened. There was a
faint and distant rumbling of wheels in the town behind her, and surely
some strains of music, which carried her back in memory to another
evening in the past! Down below the cliffs on her left she heard the
mysterious whispering of the sea; in the little coppice across the road
a wood-pigeon cooed her soft "good-night"; and away in the hay-fields,
stretching inland, she heard the corncrakes' grating call; but no human
footstep broke the silence of night. Surely Cardo would have gone to
market on such a lovely day! or, who knows? perhaps he was too sad to
care for town or market? But hark! a footstep on the hard, dry road.
She listened breathlessly as it drew nearer in the gathering grey of
the twilight. Steadily it tramped, tramped on, and peeping round the
milestone, Valmai at last saw a grey figure emerge from the haze. It
was Cardo, she felt sure, and rising at once, she hurried some distance
on the road in a sudden feeling of nervousness. The steady tramp,
tramp came ever nearer, and, looking through the increasing shadows,
she saw distinctly the well-remembered form, the broad shoulders, the
firmly-knit frame, and in a fresh access of nervousness she hurried on
again--putting off the moment of recognition which she longed for, and
endeavouring to reach a hollow in the high bank, where she might lie
hidden until she had regained courage and calmness.

Meanwhile Cardo, who had driven in to the market with Dr. Hughes in the
morning, had started on his homeward journey just as Valmai was leaving
the town behind her. It had been a lovely day, he had had pleasant
company, and had transacted his business satisfactorily; but a deep and
settled gloom seemed to have fallen upon him, which he was powerless to
shake off. Through the whole tenor of his life ran the distracting
memory of Valmai's unrelenting anger in the Velvet Walk, and of the
bitterness of the subsequent meeting at Colonel Meredith's. As he
stepped along through the summer twilight, and saw the silver moon
which hung above him, his thoughts flew back to the first evening of
his acquaintance with her. Ah! how long ago it seemed, and yet how
everything pertaining to that evening seemed to repeat itself. There
were the strains of the militia band throbbing on the quiet evening
air, just as they did on that eventful evening; and there was even a
grey female figure hurrying before him as before,