ll held her hand in his and as she made a movement to draw it
away, he suddenly pulled her to him and put his arms about her and
kissed her.

"Sheila!" he said.

"Let me go!" she whispered.

She drew away from him, and stood looking at him for a few moments. Then
she pushed the gate open and walked into the yard.

"Good-night!" she said.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: Shuiler: a tramp or beggar.]

THE SEVENTH CHAPTER

1

His habit had been to work in the morning with Marsh, and then, after
light luncheon, they walked through the country during the afternoon,
climbing hills or tramping heavily through the fields or, going off on
bicycles, to bathe at Cushendall. Sometimes, Mr. Quinn accompanied them
on these expeditions, and then they had fierce arguments about Ireland,
but more often Marsh and Henry went off together, leaving Mr. Quinn
behind to ponder over some problem of agriculture or to wrangle with
William Henry Matier on what was and what was not a fair day's work. But
now, Henry began to scheme to be alone. On the day after he had taken
Sheila Morgan to her uncle's farm, he had been so restless and
inattentive during his morning's work that Marsh had asked him if he
were ill.

"I'm rather headachy," he had answered, and had gladly accepted the
offer to quit work for the day.

"Would you like to go out for a walk?" Marsh had asked. "The fresh
air!..."

And Henry had replied, "No, thanks! I think I'll just go up to my room!"

He had gone to his room and then, listening until he had heard Marsh go
out, he had descended the stairs and, almost on tiptoe, had gone out of
the house by a side-door, and, slipping through the paddock as if he
were anxious not to be seen, had run swiftly through the meadows and
cornfields until he reached the road that led to Hamilton's farm. He had
not decided what he was going to do when he had reached the farm. Sheila
would probably be busy about the house or she might have work to do in
the farmyard. Now that her uncle was ill, some of his labour would have
to be done by others. But he would be less in the way, he thought, in
the morning than he would be in the evening when the cows were being
milked ... though he might offer to help her to strain the milk and
churn it, if she did that, and he could scald the milk-pans and ... do
lots of things! The evening, however, was still a long way off, but the
morning was ... _now!_ And he wished very much to be with Sheila .