She was out again in a minute--and this time, she took my arm of her own accord.
"Shall we go a little farther ?" she said.

"It is so nice and cool at this hour of the evening." Her object in view, whatever it might be, was evidently an object that lay beyond the village.

In the solemn, peaceful twilight we followed the lonely windings of the valley along which I had passed in the morning.
When we came opposite the little solitary house, which I had already learnt to know as "Browndown," I felt her hand unconsciously tighten on my arm.

"Aha!" I said to myself.

"Has Browndown anything to do with this ?" "Does the view look very lonely to-night ?" she asked, waving her cane over the scene before us.
The true meaning of that question I took to be, "Do you see anybody walking out to-night ?" It was not my business to interpret her meaning, before she had thought fit to confide her secret to me.