The question, where was the harm, late so triumphantly put, seemed to have no heart in it now.

For a moment that had to Letty the air of an aeon, Godfrey stood peering.
Not a little to his displeasure, he had heard from his mother of her refusal to grant Letty's request, and had set out in the hope of meeting and helping her home, for by that time it had begun to rain, and looked stormy.
In the darkness he saw something white, and, as he gazed, it grew to Letty's face.

The strange, scared, ghastly expression of it bewildered him.
Letty became aware that Godfrey did not recognize her at first, and the hope sprung up in her heart that he might not see Tom at all; but she could not utter a word, and stood returning Godfrey's gaze like one fascinated with terror.

Presently her heart began again to bear witness in violent piston-strokes.
"Is it really you, my child ?" said Godfrey, in an uncertain voice--for, if it was indeed she, why did she not speak, and why did she look so scared at the sight of him?
"O Cousin Godfrey!" gasped Letty, then first finding a little voice, "you gave me such a start!" "Why should you be so startled at seeing me, Letty ?" he returned.

"Am I such a monster of the darkness, then ?" "You came all at once," replied Letty, gathering courage from the playfulness of his tone, "and blocked up the door with your shoulders, so that not a ray of light fell on your face; and how was I to know it was you, Cousin Godfrey ?" From a paleness grayer than death, her face was now red as fire; it was the burning of the lie inside her.