g. The rest is easy, for I have saved money for the land
journey, and can get a change of clothes. I will write to my mother, who
will meet us on the way.'

He added details in reply to her inquiries, which left no doubt in
Phyllis's mind of the feasibility of the undertaking. But its magnitude
almost appalled her; and it is questionable if she would ever have gone
further in the wild adventure if, on entering the house that night, her
father had not accosted her in the most significant terms.

'How about the York Hussars?' he said.

'They are still at the camp; but they are soon going away, I believe.'

'It is useless for you to attempt to cloak your actions in that way. You
have been meeting one of those fellows; you have been seen walking with
him--foreign barbarians, not much better than the French themselves! I
have made up my mind--don't speak a word till I have done, please!--I
have made up my mind that you shall stay here no longer while they are on
the spot. You shall go to your aunt's.'

It was useless for her to protest that she had never taken a walk with
any soldier or man under the sun except himself. Her protestations were
feeble, too, for though he was not literally correct in his assertion, he
was virtually only half in error.

The house of her father's sister was a prison to Phyllis. She had quite
recently undergone experience of its gloom; and when her father went on
to direct her to pack what would be necessary for her to take, her heart
died within her. In after years she never attempted to excuse her
conduct during this week of agitation; but the result of her
self-communing was that she decided to join in the scheme of her lover
and his friend, and fly to the country which he had coloured with such
lovely hues in her imagination. She always said that the one feature in
his proposal which overcame her hesitation was the obvious purity and
straightforwardness of his intentions. He showed himself to be so
virtuous and kind; he treated her with a respect to which she had never
before been accustomed; and she was braced to the obvious risks of the
voyage by her confidence in him.

CHAPTER IV

It was on a soft, dark evening of the following week that they engaged in
the adventure. Tina was to meet her at a point in the highway at which
the lane to the village branched off. Christoph was to go ahead of them
to the harbour where the boat lay, row it round the Nothe--or Look-out