oloured runnel down the little
glen, and left them face to face with Eunice, who had lingered, her
dress caught on a point of the rustic chair.

"Mamma--you!" She looked trapped, accused, though sheer astonishment
held the others dumb. "We finished the game----" she began and stopped
short; after all, her manner seemed to say, why shouldn't she have tea
there with her friends? She made as if to sweep past after them but Mrs.
Goodward never moved from the narrow path. She was more embarrassed,
Peter saw, than her daughter, and as plainly at bay.

"Now that we are here----" she began in her turn.

"Now that you have followed me here," the girl rang out, "what is it
that you have to say to me?" She was white and a bright flame spot
showed on either cheek.

"I--oh," the elder woman by an effort drew the remnant of the grand
manner about her; "it is Mr. Weatheral, I think, who might have
something to say." She caught the occasion as it were on the wing. Peter
heard the quick breath behind him with which she grasped it. "Now that
you are here, however, I'll tell your party that you will be driving
home with us." She gathered up her draperies and was gone down the path
she had come before either of the others thought to stop her. Eunice had
not made a move to do so. She stood clasping the back of the chair from
which she had freed her dress, and looked across it mutinously at Peter.

"And what," she quivered, "has Mr. Weatheral to say to me?"

"There is nothing," he told her, "that I would say to you, Miss
Goodward, unless you wished to hear it." His magnanimity shamed her a
little.

"I broke my engagement to you," she admitted, "broke it to come here
with--the others. I haven't any excuse to offer you."

"And when," Peter demanded of her, "have I asked any other excuse of you
for anything that you chose to do except that you chose it. There _was_
something I wished to say to you, that I hoped for a more auspicious
occasion...." He hurried on with it suddenly as a thing to be got over
with at all hazards. "It was to say that I hoped you might not find it
utterly beyond you to think of marrying me." He saw her sway a little,
holding still to her chair, and moved toward her a step, dizzy himself
with the sudden onset of emotion. "But now that it is said, if it
distresses you we will say no more about it." She waved him back for a
moment without altering her strained, trapped attitude.

"Have you said this to mamma? And