The minister had not come home for his evening meal, and food was furthest from the housekeeper's thoughts.

What should she do?
What ought she to do?
How could she avert the disaster so certain to overwhelm those two young people the moment their secret became known?
It was in vain that she tried to encourage herself with the hope that Kyan had exaggerated--that the meetings in the grove had not been as frequent as he said they were, or that they had been merely casual.
She knew better.

She had seen the pair together and the look in John Ellery's eyes.

No, the mischief was done, they loved each other; or, at least, he loved her.

There was the great trouble.
Keziah, in spite of her worldly common sense, was an idealist at heart.
Love matches she believed in thoroughly.