be looked for at that time with the greatest
certainty. But at three he was sitting down to dinner, and even at
half-past five had not as yet left his room at the "Dragon."

"I suppose that we can't have tea till he's been," said Mrs. Ray,
just at that hour; "that is, if he does come at all."

Rachel felt that her mother was vexed, because she suspected that Mr.
Rowan was not about to keep his word.

"Don't let his coming make any difference, mamma," said Rachel. "I
will go and get tea."

"Wait a few minutes longer, my dear," said Mrs. Ray.

It was all very well for Rachel to beg that it might make "no
difference." It did make a very great deal of difference.

"I think I'll go over and see Mrs. Sturt for a few minutes," said
Rachel, getting up.

"Pray don't, my dear,--pray don't; I should never know what to say to
him if he should come while you were away."

So Rachel again sat down.

She had just, for the second time, declared her intention of getting
tea, having now resolved that no weakness on her mother's part should
hinder her, when Mrs. Ray, from her seat near the window, saw the
young man coming over the green. He was walking very slowly, swinging
a big stick as he came, and had taken himself altogether away from
the road, almost to the verge of Mrs. Sturt's farmyard. "There he
is," said Mrs. Ray, with a little start. Rachel, who was struggling
hard to retain her composure, could not resist her impulse to jump
up and look out upon the green from behind her mother's shoulder.
But she did this from some little distance inside the room, so
that no one might possibly see her from the green. "Yes; there
he is, certainly," and, having thus identified their visitor,
she immediately sat down again. "He's talking to Farmer Sturt's
ploughboy," said Mrs. Ray. "He's asking where we live," said Rachel.
"He's never been here before."

Rowan, having completed his conversation with the ploughboy, which
by the way seemed to Mrs. Ray to have been longer than was necessary
for its alleged purpose, came boldly across the green, and without
pausing for a moment made his way through the cottage gate. Mrs. Ray
caught her breath, and could not keep herself quite steady in her
chair. Rachel, feeling that something must be done, got up from her
seat and went quickly out into the passage. She knew that the front
door was open, and she was prepared to meet Rowan in the hall.

"I told you I should call," said he. "I hope you'll