"God bless you for asking me straight out, my dear! I was waiting for you to speak and praying you'd do it before I went to bed myself.

I couldn't have slept a wink if you hadn't." For a space they sat silent--Robin on her knee like a child drooping against her warm breast.

Outside was the night stillness of the moor, inside the night stillness held within the thick walls of stone rooms and passages, in their hearts the stillness of something which yet waited--unsaid.
At last-- "Did Lord Coombe tell you who--he was, Dowie ?" "He said perhaps you would tell me yourself--if you felt you'd like me to know.

He said it was to be as you chose." Robin fumbled with a thin hand at the neck of her dress.

She drew from it a chain with a silk bag attached.