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' the young leddy, sir; she is not in her room." "Why, there she is," said I, standing up and glancing through the casement. "She has gone back for the flowers she left upon the bank." "Oh, sir, see her boots and her dress!" cried the landlady, wildly. "I wish her mother was here, sir--I do. Where she has been is more than I ken, but her bed has not been lain on this night." "She has felt restless, doubtless, and went for a walk, though the hour was certainly a strange one." Mrs. Adams pursed her lip and shook her head. But then as she stood at the casement, the girl beneath looked smilingly up at her and beckoned to her with a merry gesture to open the window. "Have you my tea there?" she asked in a rich, clear voice, with a touch of the mincing French accent. "It is in your room, miss." "Look at my boots, Mrs. Adams!" she cried, thrusting them out from under her skirt. "These fells of yours are dreadful places--effroyable--one inch, two inch; never have I seen such mud! My dress, too--_voila_!" "Eh, miss, but you are in a pickle," cried the landlady, as she gazed down at the bedraggled gown. "But you must be main weary and heavy for sleep." "No, no," she answered, laughingly, "I care not for sleep. What is sleep? it is a little death--_voila tout_. But for me to walk, to run, to beathe the air--that is to live. I was not tired, and so all night I have explored these fells of Yorkshire." "Lord 'a mercy, miss, and where did you go?" asked Mrs. Adams. She waved her hand round in a sweeping gesture which included the whole western horizon. "There," she cried. "O comme elles sont tristes et sauvages, ces collines! But I have flowers here. You will give me water, will you not? They will wither else." She gathered her treasures in her lap, and a moment later we heard her light, springy footfall upon the stair. So she had been out all night, this strange woman. What motive could have taken her from her snug room on to the bleak, wind-swept hills? Could it be merely the restlessness, the love of adventure of a young girl? Or was there, possibly, some deeper meaning in this nocturnal journey? Deep as were the mysteries which my studies had taught me to solve, here was a human problem which for the moment at least was beyond my comprehension. I had walked out on the moor in the forenoon, and on my return, as I topped the brow that overlooks the little town, I saw my fellow-lodger
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