"I will. Robert is going; I saw him turn. I believe he noticed us. They
are shaking hands."

"Shaking hands, with emphasis," added Shirley, "as if they were
ratifying some solemn league and covenant."

They saw Robert quit the group, pass through a gate, and disappear.

"And he has not bid us good-bye," murmured Caroline.

Scarcely had the words escaped her lips when she tried by a smile to
deny the confession of disappointment they seemed to imply. An unbidden
suffusion for one moment both softened and brightened her eyes.

"Oh, that is soon remedied!" exclaimed Shirley: "we'll _make_ him bid us
good-bye."

"_Make_ him! That is not the same thing," was the answer.

"It _shall_ be the same thing."

"But he is gone; you can't overtake him."

"I know a shorter way than that he has taken. We will intercept him."

"But, Shirley, I would rather not go."

Caroline said this as Miss Keeldar seized her arm and hurried her down
the fields. It was vain to contend. Nothing was so wilful as Shirley
when she took a whim into her head. Caroline found herself out of sight
of the crowd almost before she was aware, and ushered into a narrow
shady spot, embowered above with hawthorns, and enamelled under foot
with daisies. She took no notice of the evening sun chequering the turf,
nor was she sensible of the pure incense exhaling at this hour from tree
and plant; she only heard the wicket opening at one end, and knew Robert
was approaching. The long sprays of the hawthorns, shooting out before
them, served as a screen. They saw him before he observed them. At a
glance Caroline perceived that his social hilarity was gone; he had left
it behind him in the joy-echoing fields round the school. What remained
now was his dark, quiet, business countenance. As Shirley had said, a
certain hardness characterized his air, while his eye was excited, but
austere. So much the worse timed was the present freak of Shirley's. If
he had looked disposed for holiday mirth, it would not have mattered
much; but now----

"I told you not to come," said Caroline, somewhat bitterly, to her
friend. She seemed truly perturbed. To be intruded on Robert thus,
against her will and his expectation, and when he evidently would rather
not be delayed, keenly annoyed her. It did not annoy Miss Keeldar in the
least. She stepped forward and faced her tenant, barring his way. "You
omitted to bid us good-bye," she said.

"Omitted to bid you good-bye! Where did