either banks nor lawyers in these terrible times;
and I am come to you.'

Loveday after some hesitation agreed to take care of anything that
Derriman should bring, whereupon the farmer said he would call with the
parchments and papers alluded to in the course of a week. Derriman then
went away by the garden gate, mounted his pony, which had been tethered
outside, and rode on till his form was lost in the shades.

The miller rejoined his friends, and found that in the meantime John had
arrived. John informed the company that after parting from his father
and Anne he had rambled to the harbour, and discovered the Pewit by the
quay. On inquiry he had learnt that she came in at eleven o'clock, and
that Bob had gone ashore.

'We'll go and meet him,' said the miller. ''Tis still light out of
doors.'

So, as the dew rose from the meads and formed fleeces in the hollows,
Loveday and his friends and neighbours strolled out, and loitered by the
stiles which hampered the footpath from Overcombe to the high road at
intervals of a hundred yards. John Loveday, being obliged to return to
camp, was unable to accompany them, but Widow Garland thought proper to
fall in with the procession. When she had put on her bonnet she called
to her daughter. Anne said from upstairs that she was coming in a
minute; and her mother walked on without her.

What was Anne doing? Having hastily unlocked a receptacle for emotional
objects of small size, she took thence the little folded paper with which
we have already become acquainted, and, striking a light from her private
tinder-box, she held the paper, and curl of hair it contained, in the
candle till they were burnt. Then she put on her hat and followed her
mother and the rest of them across the moist grey fields, cheerfully
singing in an undertone as she went, to assure herself of her
indifference to circumstances.

XV. 'CAPTAIN' BOB LOVEDAY OF THE MERCHANT SERVICE

While Loveday and his neighbours were thus rambling forth, full of
expectancy, some of them, including Anne in the rear, heard the crackling
of light wheels along the curved lane to which the path was the chord. At
once Anne thought, 'Perhaps that's he, and we are missing him.' But
recent events were not of a kind to induce her to say anything; and the
others of the company did not reflect on the sound.

Had they gone across to the hedge which hid the lane, and looked through
it, they would have seen a light