try-road and the
railway line which lay on the other side of it. True that an impassable
chasm lay between her and the wall, but it would be surely possible for
her to hail passers-by from here, and to persuade some of them to carry
a letter to Bedsworth or to bring paper from there. Fresh hope gushed
into her heart at the thought.

It was not a very secure footing, for the planks of, which the shed was
composed were worm-eaten and rotten. They cracked and crumbled beneath
her feet, but what would she not dare to see a friendly human face?
As she stood there a couple of country louts, young lads about sixteen,
came strolling down the road, the one whistling and the other munching
at a raw turnip. They lounged along until they came opposite to Kate's
point of observation, when one of them looking up saw her pale face
surmounting the wall.

"Hey, Bill," he cried to his companion, "blowed if the mad wench bean't
up on the shed over yander!"

"So she be!" said the other eagerly. "Give me your turnip. Jimmy, an'
I'll shy it at her."

"Noa, I'll shy it mysel'," said the gallant Jimmy; and at the word whizz
came the half of a turnip within art inch of Kate's ear.

"You've missed her!" shrieked the other savage. "'Ere, quick, where be
a stone?" But before he could find one the poor girl, sick at heart,
clambered down from her exposed situation.

"There is no hope for me anywhere," she sobbed to herself. "Every man's
hand is against me. I have only one true friend, and he is far away."
She went back to her room utterly disheartened and dispirited.

Her guardian knocked at her door before dinner time. "I trust," he
said, "that you have read over the service. It is as well to do so when
you cannot go to church."

"And why should you prevent me from going to church?" she asked.

"Ah, my lady," he said with a sneer, "you are reaping what you have
sown. You are tasting now, the bitter fruits of your disobedience.
Repent before it is too late!"

"I have done no wrong," she said, turning on him with flashing eyes.
"It is for _you_ to repent, you violent and hypocritical man. It is for
you to answer for your godly words and your ungodly and wicked actions.
There is a power which will judge between us some day, and will exact
atonement for your broken oath to your dead friend and for your cruel
treatment of one who was left to your care." She spoke with burning
cheeks and with such fearless energy that the hard