d an' went, an' comed an' went
again, like winter frosts. True as I'm living it comed an' went like
that."

Thus he spoke, half incoherently, his voice all blurred and vague with
sleep.

"You awnly think 't was so. You'd never have sat down under it else. It
ban't meant you should give yourself up now, anyways. God would have
sent the sojers to find 'e when you runned away if He'd wanted 'em to
find 'e. You didn't hide. You looked the world in the faace bold as a
lion, didn't 'e? Coourse you did; an' 't is gwaine against God's will
an' wish for you to give yourself up now. So you mustn't speak an' you
must tell no one--not even faither. I was wrong to ax 'e to tell him.
Nobody at all must knaw. Be dumb, an' trust me to be dumb. 'T is buried
an' forgot. I'll fight for 'e, my dearie, same as you've fought for me
many a time; an' 't will all fall out right for 'e, for men 's come
through worse passes than this wi' fewer friends than what you've got."

She stopped to win breath and, in the silence, heard Will's regular
respiration and knew that he slept. How much he had heard of her speech
Phoebe could not say, but she felt glad to think that some hours at
least of rest and peace now awaited him. For herself she had never been
more widely awake, and her brains were very busy through the hours of
darkness. A hundred thoughts and schemes presented themselves. She
gradually eliminated everybody from the main issue but Will, John
Grimbal, and herself; and, pursuing the argument, began to suspect that
she alone had power to right the wrong. In one direction only could such
an opinion lead--a direction tremendous to her. Yet she did not shrink
from the necessity ahead; she strung herself up to face it; she longed
for an opportunity and resolved to make one at the earliest moment.

Now that night was the longest in the whole year; and yet to Phoebe it
passed with magic celerity.

Will awakened about half-past five, rose immediately according to his
custom, lighted a candle, and started to dress himself. He began the day
in splendid spirits, begotten of good sleep and good health; but his
wife saw the lightness of heart, the bustling activity of body, sink
into apathy and inertia as remembrance overtook his wakening hour. It
was like a brief and splendid dawn crushed by storm-clouds at the very
rise of the sun.

Phoebe presently dressed her little daughter and, as soon as the child
had gone down-stairs, Will resumed the prob