And all the modification on this point which his judgment could obtain from his impetuous and excited heart was, that he would watch her words and manner well when he announced his approaching absence, and if in them he read the slightest token of tender regretful feeling, he would pour out his love at her feet, not even urging the young girl to make any return, or to express the feelings of which he hoped the germ was already budding in her.

He would be patient with her; he could not be patient himself.

His heart beating, his busy mind rehearsing the probable coming scene, he turned into the field-path that led to Haytersbank.

Coming along it, and so meeting him, advanced Daniel Robson, in earnest talk with Charley Kinraid.

Kinraid, then, had been at the farm: Kinraid had been seeing Sylvia, her mother away.