Perhaps you would like to walk there a little, before going back to Hollingford ?" This was a dismissal, and Dyce accepted it.

They went downstairs together, and in the hall parted, with more friendliness on Constance's side than she had hitherto shown.

Dyce did not care to linger in the grounds.

He strolled awhile about the village, glancing over the pamphlet with its report of last year's business at the mill, and the local improvements consequent upon it, then returned on foot to Hollingford, where he arrived with an excellent appetite for dinner..