And he
saw it was the girl Lizzie.

She stepped inside the forge and seated herself on the Dane's anvil.

"I was walking back from prayer-meeting," she said. "'Tis nigher
this way, but I don't ever dare to come. Might, I dessay, if I'd
somebody to see me home."

"Ghosts?" asked Taffy, picking up the pincers and thrusting the bar
back into the hot cinders.

"I dunno: I gets frightened o' the very shadows on the road
sometimes. I suppose, now, you never walks out that way?"

"Which way?"

"Why, towards where your home is. That's the way I comes."

"No, I don't." Taffy blew at the cinders until they glowed again.
"It's only on Sundays I go over there."

"That's a pity," said Lizzie candidly. "I'm kept in, Sunday
evenings, to look after the children while farmer and mis'ess goes to
Chapel. That's the agreement I came 'pon."

Taffy nodded.

"It would be nice now, wouldn't it--" She broke off, clasping her
knees and staring at the blaze.

"What would be nice?"

Lizzie laughed confusedly. "Aw, you make me say't. I can't abear
any of the young men up to the Chapel. If me and you--"

Taffy ceased blowing. The fire died down, and in the darkness he
could hear her breathing hard.

"They're so rough," she went on, "and t'other night I met young
Squire Vyell riding along the road, and he stopped me and wanted to
kiss me."

"George Vyell? Surely he didn't?" Taffy blew up the fire again.

"Iss he did. I don't see why not, neither."

"Why he shouldn't kiss you?"

"Why he shouldn't want to."

Taffy frowned, carried the white hot bar to his anvil, and began to
hammer. He despised girls, as a rule, and their ways. Decidedly
Lizzie annoyed him; and yet as he worked he could not help glancing
at her now and then, as she sat and watched him. By-and-by he saw
that her eyes were full of tears.

"What's the matter?" he asked abruptly.

"I--I can't walk home alone. I'm afeard!" He tossed his hammer
aside, raked out the fire, and reached his coat off its peg. As he
swung round in the darkness to put it on, he blundered against Lizzie
or Lizzie blundered against him. She clutched at him nervously.

"Clumsy! can't you see the doorway?" She passed out, and he
followed and locked the door. As they crossed the turf to the
high-road, she slipped her arm into his. "I feel safe, that way.
Let it stay, co!" After a few paces, she added, "You're different
from the others--that's why I like you."