more to the church at Carlyle, less, it is to be feared, from a
zeal for holy things than that he might do an errand for his
adored brother, Kenneth. He carried a letter which he contrived
to pass into Ursula's hand in the crowd as the people came out.
This letter asked Ursula to meet Kenneth in the beechwood the next
afternoon, and so she stole away there when suspicious father and
watchful stepmother thought she was spinning in the granary loft."

"It was very wrong of her to deceive her parents," said Felicity
primly.

The Story Girl couldn't deny this, so she evaded the ethical side
of the question skilfully.

"I am not telling you what Ursula Townley ought to have done," she
said loftily. "I am only telling you what she DID do. If you
don't want to hear it you needn't listen, of course. There
wouldn't be many stories to tell if nobody ever did anything she
shouldn't do.

"Well, when Kenneth came, the meeting was just what might have
been expected between two lovers who had taken their last kiss
three months before. So it was a good half-hour before Ursula
said,

"'Oh, Kenneth, I cannot stay long--I shall be missed. You said in
your letter that you had something important to talk of. What is
it?'

"'My news is this, Ursula. Next Saturday morning my vessel, The