maid," he thought, "would ride on until she dropped?
Would meet discomfort at every turn with a jest or a merry stave?"

And, but for him, whom else had she? This young girl, had she not
become his burden of responsibility; his moral obligation? For the
first time he seemed to realize how the fine tendrils of her nature had
touched his; touched and clung, ever so gently but fast. Her fine
scorn for dissimulation; her answering integrity; the true adjustment
of her instinct--all had been revealed to him under the test of
untoward circumstances.

He saw her, too, secretly and silently cherishing a new faith in her
bosom, amid a throng, lax and infirm of purpose, and wonderment gave
way to another emotion, as his mind leaped from that past, with its
covert, inner life, to the untrammeled moment when she had thrown off
the mask in the solitude of the forest. Had some deeper chord of his
nature been struck then? Their aspirations of a kindred hope had
mingled in the majestic psalm; a larger harmony, remote from roundelay,
or sparkling cadenza, that drew him to this Calvin maid. A solemn
earnestness fell upon his spirits; the starlight bathed his brow, and
he found the mystery of the night and nature inexplicably beautiful.

Afar the bell of some wanderer from the herd tinkled drowsily, arousing
him from his reverie. The horses were ascending; the road emerged into
a plain, set with bracken and gorse, with here and there a single tree,
whose inclining trunk told of storms braved for many seasons. Near the
highway, in the shadow of a poplar, stood a shepherd's hut, apparently
deserted and isolated from human kind. The fool reined the horse,
which for some time had been moving painfully, and at that abrupt
cessation of motion the jestress looked up with a start.

Meeting his eyes, at first she did not withdraw her own; questioningly,
her bewildered gaze encountered his; then, with a quick movement, she
released herself from his arm and sprang to the ground. He, too,
immediately dismounted. She felt very wide-awake now, as though the
sudden consciousness of that encircling grasp, or something in his
glance before she slipped from him, had startled away the torpor of
somnolence.

"You fainted, or fell asleep, mistress," he said, quietly.

"Yes--I remember--in the gorge."

"It was impossible to stop there, so--I rode on. But here, in this
shepherd's hut, we may find shelter."

And turning the horses, he would