A Romance of Wastdale

tted here and there along the lower edges of their path, broke the stillness for a moment as they passed. They paused by the side of a watercourse which,

nly traverse to the opposite side; and in the darkness their position was dimly shown, or, rather,

ly. "But I don't remember. I don't seem to have notice

carry yo

"I crossed it safely before

it away hurriedly when she felt the contact of his arm. Her companion renewed his offer of help, but, without answering him, she stepped forward on to the nearest boulder. Her

econd in his support, lulled by a physical feeling of security induced in her by the strong

first," said Gordon. "I c

she asked, straining her gaze

can take that mu

irmly as he could, Colo

d trial, wavered as she reached the stone on which she had slipped, and secured her balance by tight

d his head r

let go o

st

ay slip and

gave her a momentary sense of loneliness now that it was removed. Gordon was just able to bridge the distance between the boulde

he cried. "I can catch yo

e replied, "I

bbling at her feet, and its swift f

do?" she cri

"It is the only way. Jump boldly!

led from it. Why had she refused his offer, was her first thought; why had he not renewed it,

n, and shore the

on the bed of the channel and the water

ve altogether," and she ess

tired, th

d," she answere

ordon was waiting too. "He means the request to come from me," she thought. As a matter of fact, nothing was farther from his reflections. The experience of the past few hours had rendered the perfect control of his faculties impossible, and the shuttles in the loom of his mind, set at work by the touch of any chance sugge

t a more pate

and this stone is

wered abstractedly, "it must

sarcasm stung

e pleaded, and realised

ave got to finish my laugh at myself first

ow her that he grasped at last the full folly of his faith in her. It was the goal at wh

manding so

old conception of him, and to justify that lurking contempt for his humility which formed a factor in her ready reliance upon his services. Now, however, she stood in sore need

in and s

l have to ask you to car

old of practised sinews, and Kate clasped her hands behind his neck and nestled down into his arms with a child's sigh of content. To Gordon the sigh conveyed

or, not the attendant, with strength to be appreciated as masterful, not to be carelessly used and forgotten. Had he stopped dead in mid-stream and asserted his cause w

inance was of the body, not the spirit, and he pas

farther bank and set her silent

. The feeling penetrated to her mind and set in motion a train of thought which, in turn, gave back to it a fresh strength and colour. A consciousness of distinct relief forced itself into evidence as the main result to her of Gordon's chance visit to Wastdale Head, and obliterated to a great degree the shame of the disclosures which had paved the way for it. She was free alike from the brutal authority of Austen Hawke and from the irksome tyranny of Gordon's adoration; for the former's power rested upon its concealment and was killed by Gordon's discovery of its existence. Every trace of it would vanish when he recovered the three remaining letters. Of the means by which they were to be regained she took no more thought than Gordon at this time did himself. She was too absorbed by her newly-found freedom to foresee the possibility of danger there. Its forcible pre-occupation of her mind indeed blinded her to all ideas which hinted antagonism. She barely wasted a conjecture on the pretext which her companion would select for the breaking off of their engagement almost on the eve of their marriage. She just caught a dim glimpse of him taking the blame upon himself, and was restfully content to leave the exact solution in his hands. "I will spare you altogether," he had said; and she knew him well enough for complete assurance t

the surrounding space, shapeless and empty of life, stimulated his poignant sense of desolation. He tried to picture and place actual features of the dale, to map out the darkness by his recollections of what it hid. Across there would be the dark mouth of Peer's Ghyll; or had he passed it?--above his head the cliffs of Great Gable, with its familiar Pinnacle; now he should be opposite the bathing-pool at the bottom of the valley. But it

t a few yards beyond. Gordon lit the lanthorn and fastened it to the saddle, and, standing on the end of the bridge, lifted the girl on to the horse's back. For a moment they remained there, she in the shadow, he with the light streaming full on his face, and then without a word Kate gathered up the reins and rode off eastwards along the Pass. She felt tha