Margery's face wore that aspect of woe which comes from the repentant
consciousness of having been guilty of an enormity. 'But he wasn't
good enough to take me, sir!' she said, almost crying; 'and he isn't
absolutely my master until I have married him, is he?'

'That's a subject I cannot go into. However, we must alter our
tactics. Instead of advising you, as I did at first, to tell of this
experience to your friends, I must now impress on you that it will be
best to keep a silent tongue on the matter--perhaps for ever and
ever. It may come right some day, and you may be able to say "All's
well that ends well." Now, good morning, my friend. Think of Jim,
and forget me.'

'Ah, perhaps I can't do that,' she said, with a tear in her eye, and
a full throat.

'Well--do your best. I can say no more.'

He turned and retreated into the wood, and Margery, sighing, went on
her way.



CHAPTER VI



Between six and seven o'clock in the evening of the same day a young
man descended the hills into the valley of the Exe, at a point about