side of the house--"I'm coming up!"

"Oh, Robin!" And straightway Innocent ran back into her room,
there to throw on a dark cloak which enveloped her so completely
that only her small fair head showed above its enshrouding folds,
--then returning slowly she watched with mingled interest and
trepidation the gradual ascent of her lover, as, like another
Romeo, he ascended the natural ladder formed by the thick rope-
like twisted stems of the ancient creeper, grown sturdy with years
and capable of bearing a much greater weight than that of the
light and agile young man, who, with a smile of amused triumph, at
last brought himself on a level with the window-sill and seated
himself on its projecting ledge.

"I won't come in," he said, mischievously--"though I might!--if I
dared! But I mustn't break into my lady's bower without her
sovereign permission! I say, Innocent, how pretty you look! Don't
be frightened!--dear, dear little girl,--you know I wouldn't touch
so much as a hair of your sweet little head! I'm not a brute--and
though I'm longing to kiss you I promise I won't even try!"

She moved away from him into the deeper shadow, but a ray of the
moon showed him her face, very pale, with a deep sadness upon it
which was strange and new to him.

"Tell me what's wrong?" he asked. "I've been too wide-awake and
restless to go to bed,--so I came out in the garden just to
breathe the air and look up at your window--and I heard a sound of
sobbing like that of a little child who was badly hurt--Innocent!"