In the present direction of the wind, we could hear the striking of the church clock.

Cristel counted the strokes.
"Seven," she said.

"Are you determined to keep your engagement ?" She had repeated--in an unsteady voice, and with a sudden change in her color to paleness--the strange question put to me by Gloody.

In his case I had failed to trace the motive.

I tried to discover it now.
"Tell me why I ought to break my engagement," I said.
"Remember what I told you at the spring," she answered.