r full confidence and eternal gratitude.
But also he was filled with solicitude for the poor girl.

She was unconscious when he laid her down on the grass, but choked and
moaned when he set to work to revive her, and realised that she was
back in life and misery after he had succeeded in getting some whisky
down her throat--contents of the flask he always carried, as a
preventive of chills and remedy for undue fatigues, and from which he
had first helped himself. They sat upon the ground side by side, his
arm round her waist, her head--feeling only that it was cushioned
somewhere--on his shoulder. The night was so warm and windless that
their wet clothes were little discomfort to them, but he kept grasping
and wringing handfuls with the hand at liberty, while he supported her
with the other. The danger of damp "things" was more terrifying to him
now than the danger of death had been a few minutes ago.

"There, there," he said soothingly, "you feel better now--don't you?
Then I'll just put on my coat, if you don't mind. I'll wrap you up in
the buggy rug--and we'll get back to Redford as soon as we can. And in
the morning, dear, you'll wake up sorry for this--this madness, and
you'll never do it again, will you?"

"Hysteria," he said to himself. "Her head turned by this love affair.
He's treated her badly, whatever they may say, and it has unhinged her
mind."

This thought disposed him to be gentle with her when she positively
refused to be taken back to Redford.

"Leave me here," she implored him. "I cannot go home! I will not go
home! My father told me he wished I was dead. Oh, I should have been
dead now if you had left me alone, and then they would have been
satisfied, and I should have been out of my misery, which is more than
I can bear. Oh, Mr Goldsworthy, don't--don't!" "Mad as a hatter, poor
thing," he thought, as he desisted from his effort to raise her. "Why,
her father thinks the world of her!"

But something had to be done. It was unwise to use force in these
cases--nor could he have brought himself to use it--and of course he
could not leave her at the dam, or leave her at all, while she was in
her present mood, and without other protection; at the same time, it
was imperatively necessary that he should get out of his wet
clothes--her also. He mentioned this latter fact, and it was touching
to see her own careful housewifely instincts assert themselves through
all her mental agony.

"Oh, you ARE wet