ished far
off upon the road a figure which gradually she made out to be that of a
woman walking towards her. Half impatient with herself at the relief
which the sight afforded her, she watched intently.

The woman came steadily on, glancing neither to left nor right, but
with her eyes bent upon the ground; and it was not until she was within
a few yards of where the girl was standing that she became aware that
she was not alone.

She raised her head, and met Philippa's gaze. A look of intense
surprise and bewilderment came over her face; she started forward, and
as she did so she caught her foot on some unnoticed stone, stumbled,
and almost fell. Philippa made a movement towards her, but immediately
the stranger recovered herself.

"You," she said, in a quick low tone, almost as if she was speaking
unconsciously, her eyes all the while fixed in a curious, scrutinising
stare upon Philippa's face. The girl showed no astonishment. There
seemed no room for astonishment in the world of strange happenings in
which she found herself, but before she could reply the woman spoke
again.

"I am not mad, as you might easily imagine," she said. "Please forgive
me, but--will you tell me who you are?"

"My name is Harford--Philippa Harford."

The other nodded. It was evidently the answer she had expected.

"For a moment I took you for--some one I used to know many years ago.
Of course it is quite impossible that it should be her, but coming upon
you suddenly like this surprised me out of my senses."

She was a tall, angular woman of what is sometimes called uncertain
age, that is to say, she might have been anything from thirty to
five-and-forty. She was dressed in a simple gown of brown holland, and
it was singularly unbecoming to one of her complexion, for her hair was
a faded, nondescript colour which might possibly have been red in early
youth, and her skin was sallow and colourless.

Her face could not, even by the most charitable, have been called
anything but plain--the cheekbones were high, the features rugged, the
eyes small and light; but Philippa noted something very attractive in
the expression. There was cleverness in the broad low brow under the
wide-brimmed hat so deplorably innocent of all suggestion of prevailing
fashion, and a whimsical twist about the corners of the mouth which
showed its possessor to be rich in humour. And yet it was a sad
face--in some indefinite way it suggested patience and e