ppointment at the Cape and leaving her alone again, when
God knows, all I care for in this world is to throw up my commission
and stay with her--always, if she will let me. Eleanor, it is
true--you are more than all the world to me. Tell me, shall I go or
stay?"

Lady Eleanor flushed deeply but rode on in silence; and Colonel George
added very gently:

"One word more; whatever your answer, remember that you can count upon
me always for your faithful friend."

So they rode on without a word for some way further till they came to
two rough tracks, of which one led to Fitzdenys Court and the other to
Bracefort, where Colonel George pulled up and looked at her straight in
the face.

"Is it go or stay?" he asked.

"Go now," she said with some difficulty; "come back,--not to-morrow,
but when you return from visiting the hut on the day after."

"If I come back to you, I shall stay," he answered.

"Come back," she repeated, "but leave me for to-morrow; and now
good-bye."

So she gave him her hand, and they went their different ways; but both
stopped and looked back after they had gone a hundred yards, to the
great surprise and disgust of their horses, who were impatient to get
home.

But next morning Colonel George received a hurried note from Lady
Eleanor saying she had been disturbed in the night by the sound of
footsteps on the gravel by the house; and that, though she could see
nothing at the time, the maids on opening the door had found the
drummer's coat lying on the step. She therefore feared that something
was gone wrong and begged Colonel Fitzdenys, despite his promise, to
ride up to the hut on the moor without delay.

Of course the colonel started off at once, and when he caught sight of
the hut he noticed that the goats were unmilked and bleating pitifully
round the door. As he drew nearer, the jackdaw and magpie came hopping
out, cawing with mouths wide open; and then he jumped off his horse,
tied him up, and knocked with his whip against the pole which formed
the door-post. There was no answer, and he went in. The idiot was
lying as he had seen him on the previous day, but the troubled look was
gone from his face; and across him with her head close to his lay his
mother, while the squirrel with his little bright eyes was sitting up
by the heads of both. The woman's skirts were dripping wet, as though
she had walked through dewy grass, and she lay quite still. The
colonel laid his hand on the m