; but as they were never seen with their heads
together, and scarcely ever sat even in the same room, she could not be
sure what their movements meant.

Strangely enough (or perhaps naturally enough), since entering the
Loveday family herself, she had gradually grown to think less favourably
of Anne doing the same thing, and reverted to her original idea of
encouraging Festus; this more particularly because he had of late shown
such perseverance in haunting the precincts of the mill, presumably with
the intention of lighting upon the young girl. But the weather had kept
her mostly indoors.

One afternoon it was raining in torrents. Such leaves as there were on
trees at this time of year--those of the laurel and other
evergreens--staggered beneath the hard blows of the drops which fell upon
them, and afterwards could be seen trickling down the stems beneath and
silently entering the ground. The surface of the mill-pond leapt up in a
thousand spirts under the same downfall, and clucked like a hen in the
rat-holes along the banks as it undulated under the wind. The only dry
spot visible from the front windows of the mill-house was the inside of a
small shed, on the opposite side of the courtyard. While Mrs. Loveday
was noticing the threads of rain descending across its interior shade,
Festus Derriman walked up and entered it for shelter, which, owing to the
lumber within, it but scantily afforded to a man who would have been a
match for one of Frederick William's Patagonians.

It was an excellent opportunity for helping on her scheme. Anne was in
the back room, and by asking him in till the rain was over she would
bring him face to face with her daughter, whom, as the days went on, she
increasingly wished to marry other than a Loveday, now that the romance
of her own alliance with the millet had in some respects worn off. She
was better provided for than before; she was not unhappy; but the plain
fact was that she had married beneath her. She beckoned to Festus
through the window-pane; he instantly complied with her signal, having in
fact placed himself there on purpose to be noticed; for he knew that Miss
Garland would not be out-of-doors on such a day.

'Good afternoon, Mrs. Loveday,' said Festus on entering. 'There now--if
I didn't think that's how it would be!' His voice had suddenly warmed to
anger, for he had seen a door close in the back part of the room, a lithe
figure having previously slipped through