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"No, I prefer walking, thank you; you can send e on

to-morrow," she said to the kindly officious man, who followed her to

offer his services as driver, and she turned up the street with a heart

full of exultant hopes Here were the last straggling houses that

reached up the hilly street, leading to the y, as she followed the familiar road, now al from the market The sun had set behind

the sea, which she already saw stretching away to the west, a soft grey

haze enfolded the hills which rose before her, and the ht with that of the departed

sun, which still left a golden glow over the west Valmai walked on

steadily until she reached the firstdown beside

it, she rested awhile, almost hidden by its shadow It was not one of

the nificant, square-cut, stiff stones, but a solid boulder

of granite, one of the many strewn about the moor She listened

breathlessly to the different sounds that reached her ears, sounds

which seemed to awake in the stillness, as she listened There was a

faint and distant ru of wheels in the town behind her, and surely

some strains ofin the past! Down below the cliffs on her left she heard the

of the sea; in the little coppice across the road

a wood-pigeon cooed her soft "good-night"; and away in the hay-fields,

stretching inland, she heard the corncrakes' grating call; but no huht Surely Cardo would have gone to

market on such a lovely day! or, who knows? perhaps he was too sad to

care for town or market? But hark! a footstep on the hard, dry road

She listened breathlessly as it drew nearer in the gathering grey of

the twilight Steadily it tra round the

e fro at once, she hurried so of nervousness The steady trah the increasing shadows,

she saw distinctly the well-remembered form, the broad shoulders, the

firmly-knit fraain--putting off theto reach a hollow in the high bank, where she e and calmness