longer obey their wills. The mead became silent. Over it
they fancied they could see figures moving in the conservatory. The air
up there seemed to emit gentle kisses.

Cornelius started forward at last, and Joshua almost simultaneously. Two
or three minutes brought them to the brink of the stream. At first they
could see nothing in the water, though it was not so deep nor the night
so dark but that their father's light kerseymere coat would have been
visible if he had lain at the bottom. Joshua looked this way and that.

'He has drifted into the culvert,' he said.

Below the foot-bridge of the weir the stream suddenly narrowed to half
its width, to pass under a barrel arch or culvert constructed for waggons
to cross into the middle of the mead in haymaking time. It being at
present the season of high water the arch was full to the crown, against
which the ripples clucked every now and then. At this point he had just
caught sight of a pale object slipping under. In a moment it was gone.

They went to the lower end, but nothing emerged. For a long time they
tried at both ends to effect some communication with the interior, but to
no purpose.

'We ought to have come sooner!' said the conscience-stricken Cornelius,
when they were quite exhausted, and dripping wet.

'I suppose we ought,' replied Joshua heavily. He perceived his father's
walking-stick on the bank; hastily picking it up he stuck it into the mud
among the sedge. Then they went on.

'Shall we--say anything about this accident?' whispered Cornelius as they
approached the door of Joshua's house.

'What's the use? It can do no good. We must wait until he is found.'

They went indoors and changed their clothes; after which they started for
the manor-house, reaching it about ten o'clock. Besides their sister
there were only three guests; an adjoining landowner and his wife, and
the infirm old rector.

Rosa, although she had parted from them so recently, grasped their hands
in an ecstatic, brimming, joyful manner, as if she had not seen them for
years. 'You look pale,' she said.

The brothers answered that they had had a long walk, and were somewhat
tired. Everybody in the room seemed charged full with some sort of
interesting knowledge: the squire's neighbour and his wife looked wisely
around; and Fellmer himself played the part of host with a preoccupied
bearing which approached fervour. They left at eleven, not accepting the
carriage