had free she did not know. How he employed such as he had, he had told
her in plain terms. She was, of course, to see him on Sunday, but that
was four days away. Besides, she wanted to meet him upon that gravel
cliff--that window-sill whose freehold they shared. High matters were
on the edge of settlement. It was appropriate that they should there
be settled where, in a mad moment, Fate had staked upon one cast all
the kingdoms of the earth and their glory--staked them and lost them.
That it was now but a question of taking possession of their
inheritance, Valerie never doubted. In this she was right. The
crooked way of Love had been made straight: only the treading of it
remained--a simple business. That he had saved her life did not weigh
with Anthony at all. That Death had summoned them, looked in their
eyes, and let them go--together, made all the difference. It was as
though a hand had written upon the wall....

The sight, then, of the terrier verified hopes which she had been
afraid to harbour. She had wanted so much, and it had all come to
pass. She had wanted to meet her man, to see him ere he knew she was
there, to find him there at the window, to come delicately behind him,
to have him turn and see her, to mark the sudden gladdening of his dear
grey eyes....

Tremulously she ascended the tiny path and passed a-tiptoe into the
thicket....

You would have sworn it an elf that stole across the clearing beyond....

As she glided into cover--

"Rain," said Anthony. "Now we're for it. No coats, no umbrella, no
nothing. Anne, you're in for a wetting."

"Won't be the first time," said Anne cheerfully.

"Well, come on, any way," said Anthony. "The woods'll shelter us for a
while, and then----"

"I shall have a bath," said Anne. "A nice hot bath directly I get in.
You know, all steaming and----"

"Will you come on?" said Anthony, laughing.

The two thrust through the screen and across the clearing. A moment
later the thicket had swallowed them up.

As in a dream, Valerie heard their voices getting fainter and
fainter....

Presently they died altogether, and she was left alone with the rain.
This fairly pelted upon her, but she never moved. The truth is, she
never noticed it.

A sudden rush of wind whipped a strand of her dark hair loose and flung
it across her lips, but she never moved.

After a little while the wind died too, and for the second time she was
left alone with the ra