from his bicycle, took Charity in his arms for a last kiss, and then
waited while she went on alone.

They were later than usual, and instead of taking the bicycle to the
library she propped it against the back of the wood-shed and entered the
kitchen of the red house. Verena sat there alone; when Charity came in
she looked at her with mild impenetrable eyes and then took a plate
and a glass of milk from the shelf and set them silently on the table.
Charity nodded her thanks, and sitting down, fell hungrily upon her
piece of pie and emptied the glass. Her face burned with her quick
flight through the night, and her eyes were dazzled by the twinkle of
the kitchen lamp. She felt like a night-bird suddenly caught and caged.

"He ain't come back since supper," Verena said. "He's down to the Hall."

Charity took no notice. Her soul was still winging through the forest.
She washed her plate and tumbler, and then felt her way up the dark
stairs. When she opened her door a wonder arrested her. Before going
out she had closed her shutters against the afternoon heat, but they had
swung partly open, and a bar of moonlight, crossing the room, rested
on her bed and showed a dress of China silk laid out on it in virgin
whiteness. Charity had spent more than she could afford on the dress,
which was to surpass those of all the other girls; she had wanted to let
North Dormer see that she was worthy of Harney's admiration. Above the
dress, folded on the pillow, was the white veil which the young women
who took part in the exercises were to wear under a wreath of asters;
and beside the veil a pair of slim white satin shoes that Ally had
produced from an old trunk in which she stored mysterious treasures.

Charity stood gazing at all the outspread whiteness. It recalled a
vision that had come to her in the night after her first meeting with
Harney. She no longer had such visions... warmer splendours had displaced
them... but it was stupid of Ally to have paraded all those white things
on her bed, exactly as Hattie Targatt's wedding dress from Springfield
had been spread out for the neighbours to see when she married Tom
Fry....

Charity took up the satin shoes and looked at them curiously. By day, no
doubt, they would appear a little worn, but in the moonlight they seemed
carved of ivory. She sat down on the floor to try them on, and they
fitted her perfectly, though when she stood up she lurched a little on
the high heels. She looked