uttered.

There was a moment's hesitating silence, broken by the sound of quick,
firm footsteps without. Broomhurst paused at the entrance, and looked
into the tent.

"Aren't you coming, Drayton?" he asked, looking first at Drayton's wife
and then swiftly putting in his name with a scarcely perceptible pause.
"Too lazy? But you, Mrs. Drayton?"

"Yes, I'm coming," she said.

They left the tent together, and walked some few steps in silence.

Broomhurst shot a quick glance at his companion's face.

"Anything wrong?" he asked, presently.

Though the words were ordinary enough, the voice in which they were
spoken was in some subtle fashion a different voice from that in
which he had talked to her nearly two months ago, though it would have
required a keen sense of nice shades in sound to have detected the
change.

Mrs. Drayton's sense of niceties in sound was particularly keen, but she
answered quietly, "Nothing, thank you."

They did not speak again till the trees round the stone well were
reached.

Broomhurst arranged their seats comfortably beside it.

"Are we going to read or talk?" he asked, looking up at her from his
lower place.

"Well, we generally talk most when we arrange to read; so shall we agree
to talk to-day for a change, by way of getting some reading done?" she
rejoined, smiling. "_You_ begin."

Broomhurst seemed in no hurry to avail himself of the permission; he
was apparently engrossed in watching the flecks of sunshine on Mrs.
Drayton's white dress. The whirring of insects, and the creaking of a
Persian wheel somewhere in the neighbourhood, filtered through the hot
silence.

Mrs. Drayton laughed after a few minutes; there was a touch of
embarrassment in the sound.

"The new plan doesn't answer. Suppose you read, as usual, and let me
interrupt, also as usual, after the first two lines."

He opened the book obediently, but turned the pages at random.

She watched him for a moment, and then bent a little forward toward him.

"It is my turn now," she said, suddenly; "is anything wrong?"

He raised his head, and their eyes met. There was a pause. "I will be
more honest than you," he returned; "yes, there is."

"What?"

"I've had orders to move on."

She drew back, and her lips whitened, though she kept them steady.

"When do you go?"

"On Wednesday."

There was silence again; the man still kept his eyes on her face.

The whirring of the insects and the creaking of the wheel