so,
though he was only ten miles away, I had to wait two whole days before
I saw him again. Then we met in the gully under the shade of the tree
ferns. I remember now how the sunlight, coming through their great
fronds, made a pattern as of dainty lace work on my white dress, and I
studied that pattern carefully, and tried to make out what it reminded
me of, though I heard quite plainly a man crushing through the bracken.
That is just like a woman though, she longs and longs, and when at last
the longed-for hour has come, she is frightened at her own temerity, and
half wishes herself back again. I was not often afraid to meet Paul, but
I was to-day, and I never looked up till I felt his arm around me and
his dear voice in my ear.

"Why, my little girl, my little girl, what is the matter with my little
girl?"

Then I told him, with my face hidden on his broad shoulder, I told him,
and he was very angry. I knew he would be, but I had not realized how
angry, and I was fairly frightened.

"Oh, Paul!" I could only gasp, "Oh, Paul!"

He swore an oath when he saw that I was trembling, and recovered himself
a little. Just occasionally, I think, a woman likes the man she loves
to be thoroughly angry, and if he does swear then she accepts it as
a relief to her own feelings as well as his. So I did not mind Paul
swearing, seeing that he was not given to that sort of thing. I felt he
was entirely in sympathy with me, and was glad of it.

"What a fool I have been," he said, "what an utter fool. I might have
known there was something up when Stanton came to me so confoundedly
civil all at once. He made me a sort of apology for his rudeness to you
the other day, congratulated me on my good luck in winning you, and then
finally suggested that I should ingratiate myself with your father by
offering to ride Boatman for him in the grass-fed steeplechase, and of
course--"

"You said 'No!' Oh, Paul! you said 'No!'"

"No! darling, of course I said 'Yse.' What else could I say? And I
wanted to please your father. How could I know--that--that--what the
fellow was up to."

"But now, Paul, you won't ride him, now you do know, will you, my
dearest?" And because I was afraid he would, I put my arms coaxingly
round his neck and tried to draw his face down to mine. It did not want
much trying, he was always ready enough to kiss me, my dear love, but he
shook his head when I tried to dissuade him from riding Boatman.

"After all, sweethe