her in his way, without, however,
exerting himself to take any active steps to secure additional meetings.
This afternoon as he walked across the meadow with his friend, he would
have indignantly denied the accusation that he was in love, but the
historic moment was at hand. A cry for help rang in his ears; above the
hedge he caught a glimpse of a white, frenzied face, and saw two hands
held out towards him in appeal.

The anguished grip of the heart with which he realised at once Elma's
identity, and her peril, was a revelation of his own feelings which
could not be reasoned away. As he knelt by her side in those first
anxious moments he was perhaps almost as much stunned as herself, for in
the flash of an eye his whole life had altered. Where he had doubted,
he was now convinced; where he had frivoled, he was in deep, intense
earnest; the fact that there would be certain difficulties to overcome
only seemed to strengthen the inward determination. If Elma would
accept him, she should be his wife though the whole world were against
them!

And Elma lay and looked at him with her dazed, lovely eyes, allowing him
to arrange the cushions under her head with a simple acquiescence which
seemed to him the sweetest thing in the world. Now that the first dread
was relieved, he felt a guilty satisfaction in the knowledge of her
prostration, and of the damage done to horse and cart. It was
impossible that she could drive back to Norton without some hours' rest,
and a special providence seemed to have arranged that the accident
should take place close to his own gates. He was too much engrossed in
his own interests to notice the look which was exchanged between his
friend and Cornelia, and as the Captain turned, away discomfited,
Geoffrey eagerly addressing his remarks to the girl herself.

"I want to get Miss Ramsden up to the house. She must rest and be
looked after, and my mother will be delighted--I mean, she'd be awfully
distressed if you didn't come. It's not far--only a few hundred yards
up the avenue. I could carry her easily if she can't manage to walk."

But at that Elma sat up, a spot of colour shining on her white cheeks.

"Ah, but I can; I'm better! I'm really quite well. But it's giving so
much trouble. I could wait in the lodge..."

"Indeed you couldn't; I wouldn't allow it! There's no accommodation
there, and the children would annoy you. Take my arm and lean on me.
Miss--er--your friend will s