She had wandered away from the gay and laughing company, and was sitting alone, absorbed and almost saddened by the unutterable beauty of the landscape below.

Stephen had missed her, but had not yet dared to go in search of her.

He imposed on himself a very rigid law in public, and never permitted himself to do or say or even look any thing which could suggest to others the intimacy of their relations.

Mercy sometimes felt this so keenly that she reproached him.

"I can't see why you should think it necessary to avoid me so," she would say.