cape from temptation.

He recollected a thousand pleas that he might have used with her, to
show it was not want of love but a sacred pledge that withheld him, and
market day after market day he went in, priming himself all the way
with arguments that were to confirm her constancy, arm her against
temptation, and assure her of his unalterable love, though he might not
break his vow, nor lay his hand upon sacred things.

But whether Emlyn would not, or could not, meet him, he did not know,
for a week or two went by before he saw her, and then she was carrying
a great fan for her young mistress, who was walking with a Cavalier,
as gay as Cavaliers ever ventured to be, and another young lady, whose
waiting woman had paired with Emlyn. They were mincing along, gazing
about them, and uttering little contemptuous titters, and Stead could
only too well guess what kind of remarks Emlyn's companion might make
upon him.

Near his stand, however, the other lady beckoned her maid to adjust
something in her dress; and Stead could approach Emlyn. She looked up
with her bright, laughing eyes with a certain wistfulness in them.

"Have you made up your mind to cheat the owls?" she asked.

"Emlyn, if you would not speak so lightly, I could show cause--"

"Oh, that's enough," she answered hastily, turning as the other maid
joined her; and Stead caught the shrill, pert voice demanding if that
was her swain with clouted shoes. Emlyn's reply he could not hear, but
he saw the twist of the shoulders.

There are bitter moments in everyone's life, and that was one of the
very bitterest of Steadfast Kenton's.

CHAPTER XXI. THE ASSAULT OF THE CAVERN.

"By all description this should be the place.
Who's here?"
SHAKESPEARE.

Harvest was over, and the autumn evenings were darkening. It was later
than the usual bed time, but Patience had a piece of spinning which she
was anxious to finish for the weaver who took all her yarn, and Stead
was reading Dr. Eales's gift of the Morte d'Arthur, which had great
fascination for him, though he never knew whether to regard it as truth
or fable. He wanted to drive out the memory of what Mrs. Lightfoot had
told him about the Henshaw household, where the youngest of the lady's
brothers had lately arrived from beyond seas, bringing with him habits
of noise and riot, which greatly scandalised the neighbours.

Suddenly Growler started up with pricked e