en by herself.

"I knew that it would be so," said John.

"Ah, yes; you know it, because your heart understands my heart. And
you will not be angry with me, and say naughty, cruel words, as you
did once before. We will think of each other, John, and pray for each
other; and will always love one another. When we do meet let us be
glad to see each other. No other friend shall ever be dearer to me
than you are. You are so true and honest! When you marry I will tell
your wife what an infinite blessing God has given her."

"You shall never do that."

"Yes, I will. I understand what you mean; but yet I will."

"Good-bye, Mrs Dale," he said.

"Good-bye, John. If it could have been otherwise with her, you should
have had all my best wishes in the matter. I would have loved you
dearly as my son; and I will love you now." Then she put up her lips
and kissed his face.

"And so will I love you," said Lily, giving him her hand again. He
looked longingly into her face as though he had thought it possible
that she also might kiss him: then he pressed her hand to his lips,
and without speaking any further farewell, took up his hat and left
the room.

"Poor fellow!" said Mrs Dale.

"They should not have let him come," said Lily. "But they don't
understand. They think that I have lost a toy, and they mean to be
good-natured, and to give me another." Very shortly after that Lily
went away by herself, and sat alone for hours; and when she joined
her mother again at tea-time, nothing further was said of John
Eames's visit.

He made his way out by the front door, and through the churchyard,
and in this way on to the field through which he had asked Lily to
walk with him. He hardly began to think of what had passed till he
had left the squire's house behind him. As he made his way through
the tombstones he paused and read one, as though it interested him.
He stood a moment under the tower looking up at the clock, and then
pulled out his own watch, as though to verify the one by the other.
He made, unconsciously, a struggle to drive away from his thoughts
the facts of the late scene, and for some five or ten minutes he
succeeded. He said to himself a word or two about Sir Raffle and his
letters, and laughed inwardly as he remembered the figure of Rafferty
bringing in the knight's shoes. He had gone some half mile upon his
way before he ventured to stand still and tell himself that he had
failed in the great object of his life.