er him, the voices of Anne and his brother, who,
having at last discovered that they were getting wet, had taken shelter
under the granary floor.

'I have been home,' said she. 'Mother and Molly have both got back long
ago. We were all anxious about you, and I came out to look for you. O,
Bob, I am so glad to see you again!'

John might have heard every word of the conversation, which was continued
in the same strain for a long time; but he stopped his ears, and would
not. Still they remained, and still was he determined that they should
not see him. With the conserved hope of more than half a year dashed
away in a moment, he could yet feel that the cruelty of a protest would
be even greater than its inutility. It was absolutely by his own
contrivance that the situation had been shaped. Bob, left to himself,
would long ere this have been the husband of another woman.

The rain decreased, and the lovers went on. John looked after them as
they strolled, aqua-tinted by the weak moon and mist. Bob had thrust one
of his arms through the rein of the horse, and the other was round Anne's
waist. When they were lost behind the declivity the trumpet-major came
out, and walked homeward even more slowly than they. As he went on, his
face put off its complexion of despair for one of serene resolve. For
the first time in his dealings with friends he entered upon a course of
counterfeiting, set his features to conceal his thought, and instructed
his tongue to do likewise. He threw fictitiousness into his very gait,
even now, when there was nobody to see him, and struck at stems of wild
parsley with his regimental switch as he had used to do when soldiering
was new to him, and life in general a charming experience.

Thus cloaking his sickly thought, he descended to the mill as the others
had done before him, occasionally looking down upon the wet road to
notice how close Anne's little tracks were to Bob's all the way along,
and how precisely a curve in his course was followed by a curve in hers.
But after this he erected his head and walked so smartly up to the front
door that his spurs rang through the court.

They had all reached home, but before any of them could speak he cried
gaily, 'Ah, Bob, I have been thinking of you! By God, how are you, my
boy? No French cut-throats after all, you see. Here we are, well and
happy together again.'

'A good Providence has watched over us,' said Mrs. Loveday cheerfully.
'Ye