He stood beside her--she seated on the old lichened seat--and a silence fell between them, during which Mr.Wilding's conscience wrestled with his stronger passion.

It was his habit to be glib, talking incessantly what time he was in her company, and seeing to it that his talk was shallow and touched at nothing belonging to the deeps of human life.

Thus was it, perhaps, that this sudden and enduring silence affected her most oddly; it was as if she had absorbed some notion of what was passing in his mind.

She looked up suddenly into his face, so white and so composed.

Their eyes met, and he stooped to her suddenly, his long brown ringlets tumbling forward.