, ceased to attend on
hers. And they went on in silence through Kirton hamlet, where an old
man followed them with his eyes, and perhaps envied them their youth and
love; and across the Ivy beck where the mill was splashing and grumbling
low thunder to itself in the chequered shadow of the dell, and the
miller before the door was beating flour from his hands as he whistled a
modulation; and up by the high spinney, whence they saw the mountains
upon either hand; and down the hill again to the back courts and offices
of Naseby House. Esther had kept ahead all the way, and Dick plodded
obediently in her wake; but as they neared the stables, he pushed on and
took the lead. He would have preferred her to await him in the road
while he went on and brought the carriage back, but after so many
repulses and rebuffs he lacked courage to offer the suggestion. Perhaps,
too, he felt it wiser to keep his convoy within sight. So they entered
the yard in Indian file, like a tramp and his wife.

The groom's eyebrows rose as he received the order for the pony-phaeton,
and kept rising during all his preparations. Esther stood bolt upright
and looked steadily at some chickens in the corner of the yard. Master
Richard himself, thought the groom, was not in his ordinary; for in
truth, he carried the hand-bag like a talisman, and either stood
listless, or set off suddenly walking in one direction after another
with brisk, decisive footsteps. Moreover, he had apparently neglected to
wash his hands, and bore the air of one returning from a prolonged
nutting ramble. Upon the groom's countenance there began to grow up an
expression as of one about to whistle. And hardly had the carriage
turned the corner and rattled into the high road with this inexplicable
pair, than the whistle broke forth--prolonged, and low, and tremulous;
and the groom, already so far relieved, vented the rest of his surprise
in one simple English word, friendly to the mouth of Jack-tar and the
sooty pitman, and hurried to spread the news round the servants' hall of
Naseby House. Luncheon would be on the table in little beyond an hour;
and the Squire, on sitting down, would hardly fail to ask for Master
Richard. Hence, as the intelligent reader can foresee, this groom has a
part to play in the imbroglio.

Meantime, Dick had been thinking deeply and bitterly. It seemed to him
as if his love had gone from him indeed, yet gone but a little way; as
if he needed but to find the