was! Fortunately,
however, she added, George could now see through her.

The farmer himself, much agitated at his mother's departure, made
another search for the locket, and mowed the grass in the orchard
himself, thinking that perhaps the lady had dropped it, or that it had
caught in her dress and dragged along, and he also took the rake, and
turned over every heap of dead leaves which the wind had blown into the
corners. But there was no locket and no letter. At last he thought that
perhaps the magpie, Kapchack--as magpies were always famous for their
fondness for glittering things, such as silver spoons--might have picked
up the locket, attracted by the gleaming diamonds. He got a ladder and
searched the nest, even pulling part of it to pieces, despite Kapchack's
angry remonstrances, but the locket was not there.

As he came down the ladder there was the young lady, who had stolen into
the orchard and watched his operations. They stood and faced each other
for a minute: at least, she looked at him, _his_ sullen gaze was bent
upon the ground. As for her, the colour came and went in her cheek, and
her breast heaved so that, for a while, she could not speak. At last she
said very low: "So you do not believe me, but some day you will know
that you have judged me wrongly". Then she turned, and without another
word went swiftly from the orchard.

He did not follow her, and he never saw her again. The same evening she
left the village, she and the old woman, her aunt, quietly and without
any stir, and where they went (beyond the market town) no one knew or
even heard. And the very same evening, too, the rich gentleman who had
given her the locket, and who made an unwonted stay in his country home
because of her, also left the place, and went, as was said, to London.
Of course people easily put two and two together, and said no doubt the
girl had arranged to meet her wealthy admirer, but no one ever saw them
together. Not even the coachman, when the gentleman once more returned
home years afterwards, though the great authority in those days, could
say what had become of her; if she had met his master it was indeed in
some secret and mysterious manner. But the folk, when he had done
speaking, and had denied these things, after he had quaffed his ale and
departed, nudged each other, and said that no doubt his master,
foreseeing the inquiries that would be made, had bribed him with a
pocketful of guineas to hold his tongue.