uld there arise anything special to be done; but he was not always
close to her,--as she would have had him. He had gained his purpose,
and he was satisfied. She had entered in upon the fruition of
positive bliss, but enjoyed it in perfection only when she heard the
sound of his voice, or could look into his eyes as she spoke to him.
She did not care much about the great run from Dillsborough, or even
for the compliment with which Mr. Twentyman finished his narrative.
They were riding about the big woods all day, not without killing
a fox, but with none of the excitement of a real run. "After that
Croppy will be quite fit to come again on Wednesday," suggested the
Colonel on their way home. To which Sir Harry assented.

"What do you folks mean to do to-day?" asked Lady Albury at breakfast
on the following morning. Ayala had her own little plan in her head,
but did not dare to propose it publicly. "Will you choose to be
driven, or will you choose to walk?" said Lady Albury, addressing
herself to Ayala. Ayala, in her present position, was considered to
be entitled to special consideration. Ayala thought she would prefer
to walk. At last there came a moment in which she could make her
request to the person chiefly concerned. "Walk with me to the wood
with that absurd name," suggested Ayala.

"Gobblegoose Wood," suggested the Colonel. Then that was arranged
according to Ayala's wishes.

A walk in a wood is perhaps almost as good as a comfortable seat in a
drawing-room, and is, perhaps, less liable to intrusion. They started
and walked the way which Ayala remembered so well when she had
trudged along, pretending to listen to Sir Harry and Captain Glomax
as they carried on their discussion about the hunted fox, but giving
all her ears to the Colonel, and wondering whether he would say
anything to her before the day was over. Then her mind had been in a
perturbed state which she herself had failed to understand. She was
sure that she would say "No" to him, should he speak, and yet she
desired that it should be "Yes." What a fool she had been, she told
herself as she walked along now, and how little she had deserved all
the good that had come to her!

The conversation was chiefly with him as they went. He told her much
now of the how, and the when, and the where. He hoped there might be
no long delay. He would live, he said, for the next year or two at
Aldershot, and would be able to get a house fit for her on condition
th