So he contented himself with saying,-- 'I'll let yo' go into t' warm kitchen if yo'll tell me if yo' think I can ever forget yo' again.' She looked up at him defiantly, and set her red lips firm.

He enjoyed her determination not to reply to this question; it showed she felt its significance.

Her pure eyes looked steadily into his; nor was the expression in his such as to daunt her or make her afraid.

They were like two children defying each other; each determined to conquer.

At last she unclosed her lips, and nodding her head as if in triumph, said, as she folded her arms once more in her check apron,-- 'Yo'll have to go home sometime.' 'Not for a couple of hours yet,' said he; 'and yo'll be frozen first; so yo'd better say if I can ever forget yo' again, without more ado.' Perhaps the fresh voices breaking on the silence,--perhaps the tones were less modulated than they had been before, but anyhow Bell Robson's voice was heard calling Sylvia through the second door, which opened from the dairy to the house-place, in which her mother had been till this moment asleep.