y
very well."

Her face had drooped. "Oh!" she murmured, as she saw the dilemma.
"What have I done!"

There was a smell of something burning within, and he looked through
the window. The rabbit that he had been cooking to coax a weak
appetite was beginning to char. "Please go in and attend to it," he
said. "Do what you like. Now I leave. You will find everything about
the hut that is necessary."

"But, Giles--your supper," she exclaimed. "An out-house would do for
me--anything--till to-morrow at day-break!"

He signified a negative. "I tell you to go in--you may catch agues out
here in your delicate state. You can give me my supper through the
window, if you feel well enough. I'll wait a while."

He gently urged her to pass the door-way, and was relieved when he saw
her within the room sitting down. Without so much as crossing the
threshold himself, he closed the door upon her, and turned the key in
the lock. Tapping at the window, he signified that she should open the
casement, and when she had done this he handed in the key to her.

"You are locked in," he said; "and your own mistress."

Even in her trouble she could not refrain from a faint smile at his
scrupulousness, as she took the door-key.

"Do you feel better?" he went on. "If so, and you wish to give me some
of your supper, please do. If not, it is of no importance. I can get
some elsewhere."

The grateful sense of his kindness stirred her to action, though she
only knew half what that kindness really was. At the end of some ten
minutes she again came to the window, pushed it open, and said in a
whisper, "Giles!" He at once emerged from the shade, and saw that she
was preparing to hand him his share of the meal upon a plate.

"I don't like to treat you so hardly," she murmured, with deep regret
in her words as she heard the rain pattering on the leaves. "But--I
suppose it is best to arrange like this?"

"Oh yes," he said, quickly.

"I feel that I could never have reached Sherton."

"It was impossible."

"Are you sure you have a snug place out there?" (With renewed
misgiving.)

"Quite. Have you found everything you want? I am afraid it is rather
rough accommodation."

"Can I notice defects? I have long passed that stage, and you know it,
Giles, or you ought to."

His eyes sadly contemplated her face as its pale responsiveness
modulated through a crowd of expressions that showed only too clearly
to what a pitch she was s