o come with me? Then it is you who are
afraid to go down by yourself? Oh, Mabyn!"

"Never mind, Wenna: let's go down through the wood, just for fun."

So the two sisters set out arm in arm, and through some spirit of
mischief Wenna would not speak a word. Mabyn was gradually overawed by
the silence, the night, the loneliness of the road, and the solemn
presence of the great living vault above them. Moreover, before getting
into the wood they had to skirt a curious little dingle, in the hollow
of which are both a church and churchyard. Many a time the sisters had
come up to this romantic dell in the spring-time to gather splendid
primroses, sweet violets, the yellow celandine, and other wild flowers
that grew luxuriantly on its steep banks; and very pretty the old church
looked then, with the clear sunshine of April streaming down through the
scantily-leaved trees into this sequestered spot. Now the deep hole was
black as night, and they could only make out a bit of the spire of the
church as it appeared against the dark sky. Nay, was there not a sound
among the fallen leaves and underwood down there in the direction of the
unseen graves?

"Some cow has strayed in there, I believe," said Mabyn in a somewhat low
voice, and she walked rather quickly until they got past the place and
out on to the hill over the wooded valley.

"Now," said Wenna cheerfully, not wishing to have Mabyn put in a real
fright, "as we go down I am going to tell you something, Mabyn. How
would you like to have to prepare for a wedding in a fortnight?"

"Not at all," said Mabyn promptly, even fiercely.

"Not if it was your own?"

"No. Why, the insult of such a request!"

According to Mabyn's way of thinking it was an insult to ask a girl to
marry you in a fortnight, but none to insist on her marrying you the day
after to-morrow.

"You think that a girl could fairly plead that as an excuse--the mere
time to get one's dresses and things ready?"

"Certainly."

"Oh, Mabyn," said Wenna far more seriously, "it is not of dresses I am
thinking at all; but I shudder to think of getting married just now. I
could not do it. I have not had enough time to forget what is past; and
until that is done how could I marry any man?"

"Wenna, I do love you when you talk like that," her sister cried. "You
can be so wise and reasonable when you choose. Of course you are quite
right, dear. But you don't mean to say he wants you to get married
before he goes t