"I am ruining her for conscience' sake!" It was one morning later on, while these things were agitating his mind, that, curiously enough, something darkened the window just as they finished breakfast.

Looking up, they saw Giles in person mounted on horseback, and straining his neck forward, as he had been doing for some time, to catch their attention through the window.

Grace had been the first to see him, and involuntarily exclaimed, "There he is--and a new horse!" On their faces as they regarded Giles were written their suspended thoughts and compound feelings concerning him, could he have read them through those old panes.

But he saw nothing: his features just now were, for a wonder, lit up with a red smile at some other idea.

So they rose from breakfast and went to the door, Grace with an anxious, wistful manner, her father in a reverie, Mrs.Melbury placid and inquiring.