But
now! In what man's presence should I shrink, and feel myself
unworthy? You have put such words into my heart as will gain my
cause for me the moment they are spoken. I have no false shame--no
misgivings. I shall speak the truth of myself and you, and your
father will hear me."
Irene listened with the love-light in her hazel eyes; the face she
turned upon him brought back a ray of sunshine to the slowly
shadowing glen.
"I will think till to-morrow," she said. "Come to the Castle
to-morrow morning, and I shall have settled many things. But now we
must go; Helen will wonder what has become of me; I didn't tell her
I was going out."
He bent over her hand; she did not withdraw it from him as they
walked through the bracken, and beneath the green boughs, and picked
their way over the white stones of the rushing beck.
At the road, they parted.
An hour after sunset, Piers was climbing the hillside towards the
Castle, now a looming shape against a sky still duskily purpled from
the west. He climbed slowly, doubting at each step whether to go
nearer, or to wave his hand and turn. Still, he approached. In the
cottages a few lights were seen; but no one moved; there was no
voice. His own footstep on the sward fell soundless.
He stood before the tower which was inhabited, and looked at the
dim-lighted windows. To the entrance led a long flight of steps, and
as he gazed through the gloom, he seemed to discern a figure
standing there, before the doorway.
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