She looked at him keenly as he said this, and then her faced softened. "You can not tell what he was to me," she murmured in a broken voice; "my only one, my only one!" A sudden passion of tears here came to her relief. Her bosom heaved and her whole form was convulsed, and John Temple naturally felt exceedingly disconcerted. He tried to say some consoling words; he endeavored to take one of her trembling hands. But the sound of her sobs soon attracted the attention of someone within the bedroom from which she had come out. A respectable maid appeared and endeavored to persuade her to return. "Oh, madam! do not give way so," she said; "I was sure it was a pity you should see--this gentleman so soon. But she would see you, sir," she added, looking at John Temple. "If my presence distresses you," said John, courteously, looking pityingly at the weeping woman, "I shall leave the Hall at once." "What matter is it, what matter is it!" moaned Mrs. Temple; "nothing matters to me now!" With this she turned away and went back into the bedroom, and the maid hastily closed the door after her, and John saw her no more. But the incident affected him; her grief was evidently so deep and heartrending; her bitter words to him only the natural outpouring of her troubled heart. "Poor woman," thought John, and he said nothing to his uncle of this meeting when they dined together in the evening. The squire again spoke to John of the property and his tenants. "I have improved some of the farm holdings very much during the last few years," he said; "at Woodside Farm especially the whole of the outbuildings have been renewed." "Ah," said John, interested, "at Woodside Farm?" "Yes, that is one of the best farms on the property, and is let to a very respectable man named Churchill. Suppose we walk over to-morrow morning, and I will show you the place?" John, nothing loath, at once assented. "The house is old and somewhat picturesque," continued the squire, "and now that the outbuildings are in such good order, I consider Woodside a sort of model place." John expressed himself desirous of seeing it, and he doubtless was. He had not forgotten that Woodside was the Mayflower's home, and he wished again to look on her fair face. "There can be no harm in it," he thought; "it is a very innocent pleasure indeed to admire a pretty girl." Accordingly at breakfast the next morning he reminded the squire of his proposition of the night before. "Didn't you say, sir," he said, "that we had to go over and see some model farm or other this morning?" "Yes, to be sure, Woodside Farm," answered the squire, "but it had gone out of my head, as things sometimes do now. I am glad you reminded me of it." The uncle and nephew accordingly started together almost immediately breakfast was over. "We will get there, I think, before Churchill gets away among his fields," said the squire. "I should like you to see him, for I believe him to be a highly respectable man."