e asked.

"We can gather sticks and light a fire," he answered gravely. "There's
nothing else to be done."

"There's plenty of wood," she said, "and you have some matches, I
suppose? I'll help you to collect the boughs and twigs." She made a
movement towards the underwood, but he stopped her, and their hands
touched.

"You are cold," he said, "and you had a great fright. I wish I could
have prevented all this."

"I think," she replied, "that it is quite as unpleasant for you as for
me."

"Not half as unpleasant," he returned abruptly. "You must hate me for
bringing you here. You do hate me, don't you?"

He was holding the little cold hand in his and chafing it gently.

"No," she answered, pulling her hand away; "but we are wasting time.
Mrs. Lennard will be anxious about me, and----"

"And what?"

She faltered; her voice fell and broke. Then she looked up proudly, and
her eyes met his with a defiant glance.

"And Mrs. Verdon will be inconsolable without you."

When she had spoken she turned from him and began breaking off the
boughs which hung low enough for her to reach. He looked down at her
slender, graceful figure, and a great tremor passed over him. The next
instant she felt him close at her side.

"You must not do that," he said. "Elsie, listen! Some one has been
telling falsehoods. Mrs. Verdon is nothing more to me than a pleasant
acquaintance. I am grateful to her for taking care of Jamie; but you
know I always feel that Waring meant to leave the boy to me. Perhaps I
was wrong to bring you here; I wanted a few quiet words--I wanted to get
you all to myself for five minutes."

She did not speak, and her head was drooping. The bough that she had
held was released, and sprang back, rustling its foliage. The stillness,
the grey light, the heavy shadows of the trees, gave a strange unreality
to the moment. She felt as if she were part of some bewildering dream.

"I have thought of you every hour of the day," he went on. "I have been
thinking of you ever since I saw you first. When we talked together in
your London room, I hoped that you were beginning to be interested in
me."

She stirred a little, and then lifted her face. She looked as he
remembered her looking when he had first known her, only that she was
very pale now.

"I was--interested," she said.

All the ordinary conventional barriers had fallen away between them. He
found himself face to face with the beloved woman he had fancied los