and was looking at him full in the face.

"I met him on the moor," he said. "I had some talk with him. I got his
blessing."

"You got his blessing! Why, so did I, after the mass, when you were
gone."

"Then that should join us more closely than ever," he said.

"In Heaven, perhaps, but on earth--" She checked herself again. "Tell me
what you thought of him, Robin."

"I thought it was strange that such a man as that should live such a
rough life. If he were in the seminary now, safe at Douay--"

She seemed a shade paler, but her eyes did not flicker.

"Yes," she said. "And you thought--?"

"I thought that it was not that kind of man who should fare so hardly.
If it were a man like John Merton, who is accustomed to such things, or
a man like me--"

Again he stopped; he did not know why. But it was as if she had cried
out, though she neither spoke nor moved.

"You thought that, did you, Robin?" she said presently, never moving her
eyes from his face. "I thought so, too."