he could see her puzzled eyes and her down-turned, serious mouth. She
was thinking with all her wits, and, plainly, could come to no
conclusion.

She turned to him again.

"And you told him plainly that you and I ... that you and I--"

"That you and I loved one another? I told him plainly. And it was his
contempt that angered me."

She sighed again.

* * * * *

It was a troublesome situation in which these two children found
themselves. Here was the father of one of them that knew, yet not the
parents of the other, who should know first of all. Neither was there
any promise of secrecy and no hope of obtaining it. If she should not
tell her parents, then if the old man told them, deception would be
charged against her; and if she should tell them, perhaps he would not
have done so, and so all be brought to light too soon and without cause.
And besides all this there were the other matters, heavy enough before,
yet far more heavy now--matters of their hopes for the future, the
complications with regard to the Religion, what Robin should do, what he
should not do.

So they sat there silent, she thinking and he waiting upon her thought.

She sighed again and turned to him her troubled eyes.