Every night Primrose gazed at the windows of Bryn Afon Castle ere she retired to rest, to see if any lights were burning to bear witness of the earl's presence, and of perchance the presence likewise of a certain one among his attendants, whose name grew in absence ever dearer to her heart; but the old battlements frowned darkly night after night from the steep hill-top, and no sign of life was heard by day in the long avenue which led to the castle on the farther side of the hill, and up which she had gazed with curious, wistful eyes, through the bars of the great iron gates, on that eventful evening long ago in the days of her childhood, when she had beheld, awestruck, the ghost of the weeping lady. Since that day she had never again ventured near the forbidden ground, but once and again during this summer she had entreated Jack to listen at the gate for any sound of life from within--but in vain. So that season passed ere aught was again heard of the owners of the castle, and as the summer days drew to a close Jack the boatman's heart began to grow sore within him, for beyond this last year of happiness lay sorrow and parting--sorrow inevitable for himself, and who could tell whether much or little of joy for his foster-child? More and more was he fain to seek comfort in his anxiety within the walls of the little church on the hillside, where Primrose too loved as of old to steal in at the hour of Evensong, and say her prayers amid the soft chanting of the wind in the tree-tops, and watch the waving of the branches to and fro athwart the unpainted windows, veiling their bareness with a soft-glowing tracery. And to and fro over hill and dale went the young girl and her faithful guardian day after day on those errands of mercy, the fulfilling of which gave to her a curiously happy sense of nearness to that one who was ever in her thoughts; and treading thus in the lowly footprints of the servant, her own feet unconsciously trod with ever-deepening love and faithfulness in those of his Master, who daily drew her nearer to Himself by means of this beautiful human love for His friend, and taught her out of the abundance of her love for him to look upon her poorer brothers and sisters with a new depth of affection,--the overflow of her own happy heart.