'Oh, please to come out with me to the bent of the hill, and I'll tell you why.

But don't eat any of it!' He darted out at the door before Martha could stop him, and ran down the green path to a place where he was out of sight and hearing of his home, waiting breathlessly for Miss Anne to overtake him.

It was some minutes before she came, and her face was overcast and troubled; but she listened in silence, while, without concealment, but with many bitter and passionate words against the gamekeeper, and excuses for his own conduct, he confessed to her all the occurrences of the night before.

Every moment his agitation increased under her quiet, mournful look of reproach, until, as he came to the close, he cried out in a sorrowful but defiant tone, 'Oh, Miss Anne, I could not bear it!' 'Do you remember,' she asked, in a low and tender voice, 'how poor Snip used to follow me down to this very spot, and sit here till I was out of sight?
I was very fond of poor old Snip, Stephen!' Yes, her voice trembled, and tears were in her eyes.

The proud bulwark which Stephen had been raising against his grief was broken down in a moment.