thine home?'

'I am at Greystone Priory,' replied the girl. 'I went out hawking
to-day with the Mother Prioress and the rest. My pony fell with me
when we were riding after a heron. No one saw me or heard me, and my
pony galloped home. I saw none of them, and I have been wandering
miles and miles! Oh take me back, good lad; the Mother Prioress will
give thee--'

''Tis too far to take thee back to-night,' he said. 'Thou must come
with me to Hob Hogward, where Doll will give thee supper and bed, and
we will have thee home in the morning.'

'I never lay in a hogward's house,' she said primly.

'Belike, but there be worse spots to be harboured in. Here, I must
carry thee over the burn, it gets wider below! Nay, 'tis no use
trying to leap it in the dark, thou wouldst only sink in. There!'

And as he raised her in his arms, the touch of her garment was
delicate, and she on her side felt that his speech, gestures and
touch were not those of a rustic shepherd boy; but nothing was said
till he had waded through the little narrow stream, and set her down
on a fairly firm clump of grass on the other side. Then she asked,
'What art thou, lad?--Who art thou?'

'They call me Hal,' was the answer; 'but this is no time for
questions. Look to thy feet, maid, or thou wilt be in a swamp-hole
whence I may hardly drag thee out.'