His thin lips were parted in a smile that softened wondrously
the harshness of his face, and his eyes seemed then to her
alight with kindness. A moment's pause there was, during which
she sought her voice, and when she had found it, all that she
could falter was:

"Sir, how came you here? They told me that you rode to
London."

"Why, so I did. But on the road I chanced to halt, and having
halted I discovered reason why I should return."

He had discovered a reason. She asked herself breathlessly
what might that reason be, and finding herself no answer to the
question, she put it next to him.

He drew near to her before replying. "May I sit with you
awhile, Cynthia?"

She moved aside to make room for him, as though the broad cliff
had been a narrow ledge, and with the sigh of a weary man
finding a resting-place at last, he sank down beside her.

There was a tenderness in his voice that set her pulses
stirring wildly. Did she guess aright the reason that had
caused him to break his journey and return? That he had done
so - no matter what the reason - she thanked God from her
inmost heart, as for a miracle that had saved him from the doom
awaiting him in London town.