l, and could not hurry.

She had forced herself to work, so as not to attract attention to her
weak state during the past few weeks. Peter, who had already gone some
days before, had now everything ready for her, and this was her final
break with the old life.

She knew she was ill, but thought that when she got to Edinburgh, with
good medical attention and treatment, she would soon be all right again.
Perhaps a rest and the change would help her as much as anything; and
she'd soon get well and strong, and she would work hard to fit herself
for the position she was to occupy as Peter's wife.

But her legs did feel tired, as she trudged over the moor, and her steps
dragged heavily. She sank down for a few moments upon a thyme-strewn
bank to rest; the scent of the wild moorland bloom brought back the
memory of that evening in the copse. She shut her eyes for a moment, and
heard again the alarmed protest of the whaup, and the grumble of the
burn; saw again the moonlight patterns upon the ground, as it flittered
through the trees, like streams of fairy radiance cast from the magic
wand of night and, above all, heard Peter's voice, praising her eyes,
her hair, her figure.

Her cheeks burned again, and her heart throbbed anew--she heard his
tones, hoarse, vibrant and warm, as his breath scorched her cheek. She
felt his arms about her, the contact of his burning lips upon her own.

Then the calm which follows the wake of the storm, the consciously
averted eyes, and the very conscious breathing, which had in it
something of shame; the almost aversion to speak or touch again, and
over all, the deep silence of the moor, broken only by the burn and the
whaup, and the thick cloud, kindly dark, that came over the moon.

But, behind it all, the remorse and the agony that would never die; the
anxiety and uncertainty, and the secret knowledge for which each had
paid so high a price.

She rose from the bank and went slowly along the lovely moorland path.
Her breath was labored and the cough troubled her. She was hot, and
besides the tired sensation in her limbs, there was a griping feeling
about her chest that made breathing difficult.

She reached the station just a minute before the train was due, and
entered an almost empty compartment, glad to be seated and at rest.

The train soon moved out of the station, and an intense desire took hold
of her to go back. The full consciousness of her action only seemed to
strike her now