have had my chance and failed,' he said to himself grimly. 'Why should not he have his?'
With a last look at the woman he loved, Sir Clement turned his horse, and so rode out of Mary Abinger's life. She had not even seen him.
'Papa has been out shooting,' she said to Rob, who was trying to begin, 'and I am on my way to meet him. Sir Clement Dowton is with me.'
She turned her head to look for the baronet, and Rob, who had been aimlessly putting his fingers through her horse's mane, started at the mention of Sir Clement's name.
'Miss Abinger,' he said, 'I have come here to ask you one question. I have no right to put it, but Sir Clement, he——'
'If you want to see him,' said Mary, 'you have just come in time. I believe he is starting for a tour of the world in a week or so.'
Rob drew a heavy breath, and from that moment he liked Dowton. But he had himself to think of at present. He remembered that he had another question to ask Miss Abinger.
'It is a very long time since I saw you,' he said.
'Yes,' said Mary, sitting straight in her saddle, 'you never came to the house-boat those last weeks. I suppose you were too busy.'
'That was not what kept me away,' Rob said. 'You know it was not.'
Mary looked behind her again.
'There was nothing else,' she said; 'I cannot understand what is detaining Sir Clement.'
'I thought——' Rob began.
'You should not,' said Mary, looking at the schoolhouse.
'But your brother——' Rob was saying, when he paused, not wanting to incriminate Dick.
'Yes, I know,' said Mary, whose intellect was very clear to-day. She knew why Rob stopped short, and there was a soft look in her eyes as they were turned upon him.
'Your brother advised me to come north,' Rob said, but Mary did not answer.
'I would not have done so,' he continued, 'if I had known that you knew why I stayed away from the house-boat.'
'I think I must ride on,' Mary said.
'No,' said Rob, in a voice that put it out of the question. So Mary must have thought, for she remained there. 'You thought it better,' he went on huskily, 'that, whatever the cause, I should not see you again.'
Mary was bending her riding-whip into a bow.
'Did you not?' cried Rob, a little fiercely.
Mary shook her head.
'Then why did you do it?' he said.
'I didn't do anything,' said Mary.
'In all London,' said Rob, speaking at a venture, 'there has not been one person for the last two months so miserable as myself.'
Mary's eyes wandered from Rob's face far over the heather. There might be tears in her eyes at any moment. The colonel was looking.
'That stream,' said Rob, with a mighty effort, pointing to the distant Whunny, 'twists round the hill on which we are now standing, and runs through Thrums. It turns the wheel of a saw-mill there, and in that saw-mill I was born and worked with my father for the greater part of my life.'
'I have seen it,' said Mary, with her head turned away. 'I have been in it.'
'It was on the other side of the hill that my sister's child was found dead. Had she lived I might never have seen you.'
'One of the gamekeepers,' said Mary, 'showed me the place where you found her with her foot in the water.'
'I have driven a cart through this glen a hundred times,' continued Rob doggedly. 'You see that wooden shed at the schoolhouse; it was my father and I who put it up. It seems but yesterday since I carted the boards from Thrums.'
'The dear boards,' murmured Mary.
'Many a day my mother has walked from the saw-mill into this glen with my dinner in a basket.'
'Good mother,' said Mary,
'Now,' said Rob, 'now, when I come back here and see you, I remember what I am. I have lived for you from the moment I saw you, but however hard I might toil for you, there must always be a difference between us.'
He was standing on the high bank, and their faces were very close. Mary shuddered.
'I only frighten you,' cried Rob.
Mary raised her head, and, though her face was wet, she smiled. Her hand went out to him, but she noticed it and drew it back. Rob saw it too, but did not seek to take it. They were looking at each other bravely. His eyes proposed to her, while he could not say a word, and hers accepted him. On the hills men were shooting birds.
Rob knew that Mary loved him. An awe fell upon him. 'What am I?' he cried, and Mary put her hand in his. 'Don't, dear,' she said, as his face sank on it; and he raised his head and could not speak.
The colonel sighed, and his cheeks were red. His head sank upon his hands. He was young again, and walking down an endless lane of green with a maiden by his side, and her hand was in his. They sat down by the side of a running stream. Her fair head lay on his shoulder, and she was his wife. The colonel's lips moved as if he were saying to himself words of love, and his arms went out to her who had been dead this many a year, and a tear, perhaps the last he ever shed, ran down his cheek.
'I should not,' Mary said at last, 'have let you talk to me like this.'
Rob looked up with sudden misgiving.
'Why not?' he cried.
'Papa,' she said, 'will never consent, and I—I knew that; I have known it all along.'
'I am not going to give you up now,' Rob said passionately, and he looked as if he would run away with her at that moment.
'I had no right to listen to you,' said Mary. 'I did not mean to do so, but I—I'—her voice sank into a whisper—'I wanted to know——'
'To know that I loved you! Ah, you have known all along.'
'Yes,' said Mary, 'but I wanted—I wanted to hear you say so yourself.'
Rob's arms went over her like a hoop.
'Rob, dear,' she whispered, 'you must go away, and never see me any more.'
'I won't,' cried Rob; 'you are to be my wife. He shall not part us.'
'It can never be,' said Mary.
'I shall see him—I shall compel him to consent.'
Mary shook her head.
'You don't want to marry me,' Rob said fiercely, drawing back from her. 'You do not care for me. What made you say you did?'
'I shall have to go back now,' Mary said, and the softness of her voice contrasted strangely with the passion in his.
'I shall go with you,' Rob answered, 'and see your father.'
'No, no,' said Mary; 'we must say good-bye here, now.'
Rob turned on her with all the dourness of the Anguses in him.
'Good-bye,' he said, and left her. Mary put her hand to her heart, but he was already turning back.
'Oh,' she cried, 'do you not see that it is so much harder to me than to you?'
'Mary, my beloved,' Rob cried. She swayed in her saddle, and if he had not been there to catch her she would have fallen to the ground.
Rob heard a footstep at his side, and, looking up, saw Colonel Abinger. The old man's face was white, but there was a soft look in his eye, and he stooped to take Mary to his breast.
'No,' Rob said, with his teeth close, 'you can't have her. She's mine.'
'Yes,' the colonel said sadly; 'she's yours.'
Chapter