When the strain came to a natural ending, he looked again with some interest at the grey figure ever moving on, and still seeming to keep at the same distance from him.

Once more he quickened his steps, and again the figure did likewise.

"Diwss anwl!" he said.

"I am not going to run after an old woman who evidently does not want my company." And he tramped steadily on under the fast darkening sky.
For quite three miles he had followed the vanishing form, and as he reached the top of the moor, he began to feel irritated by the persistent manner in which his fellow-traveller refused to shorten the distance between them.

It roused within him the spirit of resistance, and he could be very dogged sometimes in spite of his easy manner.
Having once determined, therefore, to come up with the mysterious pedestrian, he rapidly covered the ground with his long strides, and soon found himself abreast of a slim girl, who, after looking shyly aside at him, continued her walk at the same steady pace.