was Annie, but alas! someone was with her; a
loutish figure that I at first took to be that of son Robert. But as I
came nearer, I saw it was not Robert but his equally loutish friend, the
young fellow I had seen working with him by the threshing machine. That
day, in his working clothes, he had looked what he was, a strong and
honest young farmer. To-day, in his Sunday broadcloth, with a brilliant
blue neck scarf, a brass horseshoe pin, and a large bunch of primroses
in his button-hole, he looked a blot, an excrescence, on the sunny
earth. Personally, he might have been tall, but for a pronounced stoop;
fair, but that he was burnt brick colour; smooth-faced, but for the
multitude of lines and furrows, resulting from long exposure to the open
air. His voice I couldn't help admitting was melodious and manly, yet
the moment he caught sight of me he shuffled his feet like an idiot, and
blushed like a girl. He whispered something to his companion, dropped
over the stile like a stone from a catapult, and vanished from view.

Annie advanced to meet me, blushing sweetly. She had put a finishing
touch to the magenta costume by a large pink moss rosebud. She looked at
it with admiration.

"Me and my young man have changed nosegays," she remarked simply; "he
asked me to give him my primroses, and he gave me this. They do grow
beautiful roses up at Fuller's."

"Your what?" said I dismayed. "Who did you say?"

"My young man," repeated Annie; "Edward Fuller, from the next farm. He
and me have been keeping company since Christmas only, but I've known
him all my life. We always sat together in school; he used to do my sums
for me, and I've got still a box full of slate pencil ends which he had
touched."

So my card castle came to the cloth. Here was a genuine case of true
idyllic boy and girl love, that had strengthened and ripened with mature
years. Annie had no more given me a thought--what an ass, what an idiot
I am! But really, I think Catherine's cruelty has turned my brain. I am
become ready to plunge into any folly.

And it would have been folly. After the first second's surprise and
mortification, I felt my spirits rise with a leap. I was suddenly
dragged back from moral suicide. The fascinating temptation was placed
for ever beyond my reach. And it was Edward Fuller who thus saved me!
Good young man! I fall upon your neck in spirit, and kiss you like a
brother.

I am still free! who knows what to-morrow may bring.