And therefore, Charley, you must not see Katie any more.' At this time they had turned off the road into a shady lane, in which the leaves of autumn were beginning to fall.

A path led over a stile away from the lane into the fields, and Mrs.
Woodward had turned towards it, as though intending to continue their walk in that direction.

But when she had reached the stile, she had sat down upon the steps of it, and Charley had been listening to her, standing by, leaning on the top rail.
'And therefore, Charley, you must not see Katie any more.' So much she said, and then she looked into his face with imploring eyes.
It was impossible that he should answer her at once.

He had to realize so much that had hitherto not been expressed between them, before he could fully understand what she meant; and then he was called on to give up so much that he now learnt for the first time was within his reach! Before he could answer her he had to assure himself that Katie loved him; he had to understand that her love for one so abandoned was regarded as fatal; and he had to reply to a mother's prayer that he would remove himself from the reach of a passion which to him was worth all the world beside.
He turned his face away from her, but still stood leaning on the stile, with his arms folded on it.

She watched him for a while in silence, and at last she saw big tears drop from his face on to the dust of the path on the farther side.