ggy and he
drew the cover about her and shook out the reins with a cluck. When
they reached the end of the village he turned the horse's head toward
Creston.

XVIII

They began to jog down the winding road to the valley at old Dan's
languid pace. Charity felt herself sinking into deeper depths of
weariness, and as they descended through the bare woods there were
moments when she lost the exact sense of things, and seemed to be
sitting beside her lover with the leafy arch of summer bending over
them. But this illusion was faint and transitory. For the most part she
had only a confused sensation of slipping down a smooth irresistible
current; and she abandoned herself to the feeling as a refuge from the
torment of thought.

Mr. Royall seldom spoke, but his silent presence gave her, for the first
time, a sense of peace and security. She knew that where he was there
would be warmth, rest, silence; and for the moment they were all she
wanted. She shut her eyes, and even these things grew dim to her....

In the train, during the short run from Creston to Nettleton, the warmth
aroused her, and the consciousness of being under strange eyes gave her
a momentary energy. She sat upright, facing Mr. Royall, and stared out
of the window at the denuded country. Forty-eight hours earlier, when
she had last traversed it, many of the trees still held their leaves;
but the high wind of the last two nights had stripped them, and the
lines of the landscape' were as finely pencilled as in December. A
few days of autumn cold had wiped out all trace of the rich fields and
languid groves through which she had passed on the Fourth of July; and
with the fading of the landscape those fervid hours had faded, too. She
could no longer believe that she was the being who had lived them; she
was someone to whom something irreparable and overwhelming had happened,
but the traces of the steps leading up to it had almost vanished.

When the train reached Nettleton and she walked out into the square at
Mr. Royall's side the sense of unreality grew more overpowering. The
physical strain of the night and day had left no room in her mind for
new sensations and she followed Mr. Royall as passively as a tired
child. As in a confused dream she presently found herself sitting with
him in a pleasant room, at a table with a red and white table-cloth
on which hot food and tea were placed. He filled her cup and plate and
whenever she lifted her eyes fro