y were standing under the eyes of the younger pair.

Mrs. Garland, though she had been interested in the miller for a long
time, and had for a moment now and then thought on this question as far
as, 'Suppose he should, 'If he were to,' and so on, had never thought
much further; and she was really taken by surprise when the question
came. She answered without affectation that she would think over the
proposal; and thus they parted.

Her mother's infirmity of purpose set Anne thinking, and she was suddenly
filled with a conviction that in such a case she ought to have some
purpose herself. Mrs. Garland's complacency at the miller's offer had,
in truth, amazed her. While her mother had held up her head, and
recommended Festus, it had seemed a very pretty thing to rebel; but the
pressure being removed an awful sense of her own responsibility took
possession of her mind. As there was no longer anybody to be wise or
ambitious for her, surely she should be wise and ambitious for herself,
discountenance her mother's attachment, and encourage Festus in his
addresses, for her own and her mother's good. There had been a time when
a Loveday thrilled her own heart; but that was long ago, before she had
thought of position or differences. To wake into cold daylight like
this, when and because her mother had gone into the land of romance, was
dreadful and new to her, and like an increase of years without living
them.

But it was easier to think that she ought to marry the yeoman than to
take steps for doing it; and she went on living just as before, only with
a little more thoughtfulness in her eyes.

Two days after the visit to the camp, when she was again in the garden,
Soldier Loveday said to her, at a distance of five rows of beans and a
parsley-bed--

'You have heard the news, Miss Garland?'

'No,' said Anne, without looking up from a book she was reading.

'The King is coming to-morrow.'

'The King?' She looked up then.

'Yes; to Gloucester Lodge; and he will pass this way. He can't arrive
till long past the middle of the night, if what they say is true, that he
is timed to change horses at Woodyates Inn--between Mid and South
Wessex--at twelve o'clock,' continued Loveday, encouraged by her interest
to cut off the parsley-bed from the distance between them.

Miller Loveday came round the corner of the house.

'Have ye heard about the King coming, Miss Maidy Anne?' he said.

Anne said that she had just heard