Kennedy's arm less stout than
Julian's? She lingered, it seemed, with something of a conscious
pleasure, now to pluck a flower or a fern, now to look at some yellow
lichens on the purple crags; and once, when Julian looked back, the two
were some way behind the rest of the party. They were standing on a
rock gazing on the fading splendour of the mountains in front of them,
while the light wind that had risen during the sunset, flung back his
hair from his forehead, and played with one golden tress which had
strayed down Violet's neck. He shouted to them to make haste, and they
waved their hands to him with a gay salute. Thinking that they would
soon overtake him, he pressed forward with Eva, and did not look back
again.

While Kennedy walked on with Violet in silence more sweet than speech,
they fell into a dreamy mood, and wandered on half-oblivious of things
around them, while deeper and deeper the shades of twilight began to
cast their gloom over the hills.

"Look, Violet, I mean Miss Home; the moon is in crescent, and we shall
have a pleasant night to walk in; won't it be delightful?"

"Yes," she murmured; but neither of them observed that the clouds were
gathering thick and fast, and obscured all except a few struggling
glimpses of scattered stars.

They came to a sort of stile formed by two logs of wood laid across the
gap in a stone wall, and Kennedy vaulting over it, gave her his hand.

"Surely," she said, stopping timidly for a moment, "we did not pass over
this in coming, did we?"

Kennedy looked back. "No," he said, "I don't remember it; but no doubt
it has been put up merely for the night to prevent the cattle from going
astray."

They went forward, but a deeper and deeper misgiving filled Violet's
mind that they had chosen a wrong road.

"I think," she said with a fluttered voice, "that the path looks much
narrower than it did this morning. Do you see the others?"

They both strained their eyes through the gloom, now rendered more thick
than ever by the dark driving clouds, but they could see no trace of
their companions, and though they listened intently, not the faintest
sound of voices reached their eager ears.

They spoke no word, but a few steps farther brought them to a towering
rock around the base of which the path turned, and then seemed to cease
abruptly in a mass of loose shale. It was too clear now. They had lost
their road and turned, whilst they were indulging those golden