t leave matters where they are,' said Bob impetuously. 'You have
made me miserable, and all for nothing. I tell you she was good enough
for me; and as long as I knew nothing about what you say of her history,
what difference would it have made to me? Never was there a young woman
who was better company; and she loved a merry song as I do myself. Yes,
I'll follow her.'

'O, Bob,' said John; 'I hardly expected this!'

'That's because you didn't know your man. Can I ask you to do me one
kindness? I don't suppose I can. Can I ask you not to say a word
against her to any of them at home?'

'Certainly. The very reason why I got her to go off silently, as she has
done, was because nothing should be said against her here, and no scandal
should be heard of.'

'That may be; but I'm off after her. Marry that girl I will.'

'You'll be sorry.'

'That we shall see,' replied Robert with determination; and he went away
rapidly towards the mill. The trumpet-major had no heart to follow--no
good could possibly come of further opposition; and there on the down he
remained like a graven image till Bob had vanished from his sight into
the mill.

Bob entered his father's only to leave word that he was going on a
renewed search for Matilda, and to pack up a few necessaries for his
journey. Ten minutes later he came out again with a bundle in his hand,
and John saw him go diagonally across the lower fields towards the high-
road.

'And this is all the good I have done!' said John, musingly readjusting
his stock where it cut his neck, and descending towards the mill.

XX. HOW THEY LESSENED THE EFFECT OF THE CALAMITY

Meanwhile Anne Garland had gone home, and, being weary with her ramble in
search of Matilda, sat silent in a corner of the room. Her mother was
passing the time in giving utterance to every conceivable surmise on the
cause of Miss Johnson's disappearance that the human mind could frame, to
which Anne returned monosyllabic answers, the result, not of
indifference, but of intense preoccupation. Presently Loveday, the
father, came to the door; her mother vanished with him, and they remained
closeted together a long time. Anne went into the garden and seated
herself beneath the branching tree whose boughs had sheltered her during
so many hours of her residence here. Her attention was fixed more upon
the miller's wing of the irregular building before her than upon that
occupied by her mother, for she