on the gravel caught his ear.

His heart leapt.

"Laura!"

She stopped--a white wraith in the light mist that filled the garden. He
went up to her overwhelmed with the joy of her coming--accusing himself
of a hundred faults.

She was too miserable to resist him. The storm of feeling through which
she had passed had exhausted her wholly; and the pining for his step and
voice had become an anguish driving her to him.

"I told you to make me afraid!" she said mournfully, as she found herself
once more upon his breast--"but you can't! There is something in me that
fears nothing--not even the breaking of both our hearts."




CHAPTER II

A week later the Jesuit scholastic Edward Williams arrived at Bannisdale.

In Laura his coming roused a curiosity half angry, half feminine, by
which Helbeck was alternately harassed and amused. She never tired of
asking questions about the Jesuits--their training, their rules, their
occupations. She could not remember that she had ever seen one till she
made acquaintance with Father Leadham. They were alternately a mystery