But she could not help smiling, so evident was it that he simply wished to approach her.

He had made a firm decision, like a man who risks everything, and now it was touching as well as comical to see that he remained standing a few steps from her, his back towards her, not daring to move, fearing that he had been too hasty in coming as far as he had done.

For a moment she thought he would go back again to the chapel-window as he had come from it, without paying any attention to her.

However, becoming desperate, at last he turned, and as at that moment she was glancing in his direction, their eyes met, and they remained gazing fixedly at each other.

They were both deeply confused; they lost their self-possession, and might never have been able to regain it, had not a dramatic incident aroused them.
"Oh dear! Oh dear!" exclaimed the young girl, in distress.
In her excitement, a dressing-sacque, which she had been rinsing unconsciously, had just escaped her, and the stream was fast bearing it away.