llowing the trail and making
straight for the pine-wood through which she had climbed; and she knew
at once that the driver was in search of her. Her first impulse was
to crouch down under the ledge till he had passed; but the instinct of
concealment was overruled by the relief of feeling that someone was near
her in the awful emptiness. She stood up and walked toward the buggy.

Mr. Royall saw her, and touched the horse with the whip. A minute or two
later he was abreast of Charity; their eyes met, and without speaking he
leaned over and helped her up into the buggy.

She tried to speak, to stammer out some explanation, but no words came
to her; and as he drew the cover over her knees he simply said: "The
minister told me he'd left you up here, so I come up for you."

He turned the horse's head, and they began to jog back toward Hamblin.
Charity sat speechless, staring straight ahead of her, and Mr. Royall
occasionally uttered a word of encouragement to the horse: "Get along
there, Dan.... I gave him a rest at Hamblin; but I brought him along
pretty quick, and it's a stiff pull up here against the wind."

As he spoke it occurred to her for the first time that to reach the top
of the Mountain so early he must have left North Dormer at the coldest
hour of the night, and have travelled steadily but for the halt at
Hamblin; and she felt a softness at her heart which no act of his had
ever produced since he had brought her the Crimson Rambler because she
had given up boarding-school to stay with him.

After an interval he began again: "It was a day just like this, only
spitting snow, when I come up here for you the first time." Then, as if
fearing that she might take his remark as a reminder of past benefits,
he added quickly: "I dunno's you think it was such a good job, either."

"Yes, I do," she murmured, looking straight ahead of her.

"Well," he said, "I tried----"

He did not finish the sentence, and she could think of nothing more to
say.

"Ho, there, Dan, step out," he muttered, jerking the bridle. "We ain't
home yet.--You cold?" he asked abruptly.

She shook her head, but he drew the cover higher up, and stooped to tuck
it in about the ankles. She continued to look straight ahead. Tears of
weariness and weakness were dimming her eyes and beginning to run over,
but she dared not wipe them away lest he should observe the gesture.

They drove in silence, following the long loops of the descent upon
Hamblin,