you know?" convicted her. He had not
succeeded in his mission, but on his way home he muttered, triumphantly,
"I did her, I did her!" and once he stopped to ask himself the question,
"Was it because my heart was in it?" It was their last meeting till they
were man and woman.

* * * * *

A blazing sun had come out on top of heavy showers, and the land reeked
and smelled as of the wash-tub. The smaller girls of Monypenny were
sitting in passages playing at fivey, just as Sappho for instance used
to play it; but they heard the Dubb of Prosen cart draw up at Aaron
Latta's door, and they followed it to see the last of Tommy Sandys. Corp
was already there, calling in at the door every time he heard a sob;
"Dinna, Elspeth, dinna, he'll find a wy," but Grizel had refused to
come, though Tommy knew that she had been asking when he started and
which road the cart would take. Well, he was not giving her a thought at
any rate; his box was in the cart now, and his face was streaked with
tears that were all for Elspeth. She should not have come to the door,
but she came, and--it was such a pitiable sight that Aaron Latta could
not look on. He went hurriedly to his workshop, but not to warp, and
even the carter was touched and he said to Tommy, "I tell you what, man,
I have to go round by Causeway End smiddy, and you and the crittur have
time, if you like, to take the short cut and meet me at the far corner
o' Caddam wood."

So Tommy and Elspeth, holding each other's hands, took the short cut and
they came to the far end of Caddam, and Elspeth thought they had better
say it here before the cart came; but Tommy said he would walk back with
her through the wood as far as the Toom Well, and they could say it
there. They tried to say it at the Well, but--Elspeth was still with him
when he returned to the far corner of Caddam, where the cart was now
awaiting him. The carter was sitting on the shaft, and he told them he
was in no hurry, and what is more, he had the delicacy to turn his back
on them and struck his horse with the reins for looking round at the
sorrowful pair. They should have said it now, but first Tommy walked
back a little bit of the way with Elspeth, and then she came back with
him, and that was to be the last time, but he could not leave her, and
so, there they were in the wood, looking woefully at each other, and it
was not said yet.

They had said it now, and all was over; they were se