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Nature was bountiful, she thought No sooner had she been starved off

by Edgar Fitzpiers than another being, i bare and undiluted

manliness, had arisen out of the earth, ready to hand This was an

excursion of the ie, and she said

suddenly, to disguise the confused regard which had followed her

thoughts, "Did you meet my husband?"

Winterborne, with some hesitation, "Yes"

"Where did you meet him?"

"At Calfhay Cross I co

there for the last week"

"Haven't they a mill of their own?"

"Yes, but it's out of repair"

"I think--I heard that Mrs Charone there to stay?"

"Yes I have seen her at the s once or twice"

Grace waited an interval before she went on: "Did Mr Fitzpiers take

the way to Middleton?"

"YesI " As she did not reply, he added, with a

gentler inflection, "You knohy the mare was called that?"

"Oh yes--of course," she answered, quickly

They had risen so far over the crest of the hill that the whole west