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'Then I won't be alone with you any hed at her own absurdity but persisted

'Come, Elfie, let's make it up and be friends'

'Say you would save me, then, and let him drown'

'I would save you--and him too'

'And let hily went on

'And let hily

'There; now I am yours!' she said, and a wo,the hall

With a face expressive of wretched , Elfride's hand flew like an arrow to her ear

'There!' she exclai at hiot, indeed If I had only remembered!' he answered, with a conscience-stricken face

She wheeled herself round, and turned into the shrubbery Stephen followed

'If you had told iously done it,' she capriciously went on, as soon as she heard hiivable'

'Well, you will find it, if you want ed to you e have asked papa' She considered a moment, and added more seriously, 'I knohere I dropped it, Stephen It was on the cliff I ree about me, but I was too absent to think of it then And that's where it is now, and you o at once'

And he strode away up the valley, under a broiling sun and amid the deathlike silence of early afternoon He ascended, with giddy-paced haste, the windy range of rocks to where they had sat, felt and peered about the stones and crannies, but Elfride's stray jeas nowhere to be seen Next Stephen slowly retraced his steps, and, pausing at a cross-road to reflect a while, he left the plateau and struck doards across some fields, in the direction of Endelstow House

He walked along the path by the river without the slightest hesitation as to its bearing, apparently quite faan to lengthen and the sunlight to ates, and drew near the outskirts of Endelstow Park The river now ran along under the park fence, previous to entering the grove itself, a little further on

Here stood a cottage, between the fence and the strearound, round which the river took a turn The characteristic feature of this snug habitation was its one chiuised by a huge cloak of ivy, which had grown so luxuriantly and extended so far from its base, as to increase the apparent bulk of the chimney to the dimensions of a tower Some little distance from the back of the house rose the park boundary, and over this were to be seen the syca slow inclinations to the just-awakening air