repudiating an idea so wholly contrary to his mind. "But Lady Rosamond ever loves a jest, and I will confess that she practised her deception right well. I thank you, fair Mistress Primrose, for enlightening my credulity, and now I must bid you good-night, for I have much study to complete before midnight." Primrose lay motionless upon the grass for some moments after he had left them, and Lady Bryn Afon stroked tenderly the fair head upon her knee, but said nothing; only when they parted for the night she folded her in a close embrace, and bade God bless her with an unwonted fondness, which went to the young girl's heart. Sleep closed that night unwilling eyelids. Lady Bryn Afon and Primrose lay long awake, each occupied with thoughts of their own, and Percival Vere stole forth from a restless couch at midnight into the mountains, to wrestle and pray in solitude and silence, till the first rose of dawn flushed the heavens. At Caer Caradoc, on the following forenoon, Primrose was met by her old friend the vicar of Cwmfelin, and with a loving embrace from Lady Bryn Afon and a last long look and pressure of the hand from Master Vere, that brief dream of bliss came to its close. CHAPTER XX. THE WORLD ONCE MORE. "Thy friend put in thy bosom: wear his eyes Still in thy heart, that he may see what's there. If cause require, thou art his sacrifice." --ROBERT BROWNING. "It were all one That I should love a bright partic'lar star, And think to wed it; he is so above me: In his bright radiance and collateral light Must I be comforted, not in his sphere." --SHAKESPEARE.