stood in the centre of an open plain above which the yellow sun hung
gleaming like a ball of gold; there was silence everywhere: Harry's horse
stood still with his nose to the ground, at a distance Summers' buggy
dipped slowly down into the bend of an old watercourse, and far off in
the dim simmering background there was a hazy suggestion of trees. The
solitude was complete.

'Then you won't go, Chris?' he said.

'Yes,' she answered, smiling into his face, 'but not for ever.'

He drew her closer at the suggestion.

'But why must you go? Why should we part?'

'Please, please, dear, for a time. I--I want to be away for a little
while, till I can bear it better--you know what I mean. Ah!' she cried
with sudden warmth, 'I thought was going to be strong and brave and bear
it all alone; but I was only a girl, not a heroine--my heart was crying
out against it by day and night.'

'We'll be very happy, Chris, in spite of those silly terrors. 'Twas Mrs.
Haddon sent me after you.'

'I'm glad. Oh, I'm glad!'

He gathered her to his heart, and kissed her again and again.

'Chris,' he said, 'you're not quite fair to the people of Waddy; not a
man or woman of them thinks a mean thought of you.'

'But I cannot bear to face them. Let me go for a time, and I will come
back.'

'An' be my wife?'

'Yes, if you still want me.'

'If! You'll write often.'

'Every day if you wish it, dear.'

'Every day then. Good-bye, my darling. I'll let you go, but not for long.
If you don't come to me soon, I will come to you.'

The parting was long and loving, and then Harry recalled Jock Summers
with a loud cooey. After Chris had been helped into the buggy the old man
glanced sharply at Harry.

'Well, Maister Highwayman?' he said.

'She has promised to be my wife, sir,' said Harry.

Summers looked into the girl's brimming eyes, and his face softened.

'I'm right glad,' he said simply.

Harry rode by the trap as far as the town; then there was another
parting, and he returned to Waddy like a man in a dream. That evening he
told his mother that Christina Shine had promised to be his wife. Her
answer surprised him.

'She is a brave, beautiful, genuine woman, and I would not have it
different.'

'She said you were the best woman in the world, mother, and I believe she
was right.'

'No, no, Henry; I will be content now to have you think me the second
best,' said his mother, smiling.

Chris, who was staying with a relation of Su