"Come, Aunt Ruby! No--stay with Eunice!" cried Fidelia; and she flew rather than ran up the hill, and out of sight. To see--what? Dr Justin standing with his arm thrown over the neck of his favourite, while, with hand and voice, he soothed her into quiet again. The sudden relief moved Fidelia as the sight of no catastrophe could have moved her. With a cry she sprang forward, clasping with both hers the hand he held out to her; and, in the single instant of meeting, his eyes read in hers the secret which she herself had not known. "My Faithful!" he breathed. She cared for him. He had but to speak the word, and she would be his for ever. But he did not speak it. Something--was it a sense of honour, or an old memory, or was it the sudden change in the beautiful moved face that kept him silent? "Eunice!--I must go and tell Eunice! We were all so frightened," she said hurriedly. "I was in no danger. I hope your sister has not been startled. I will go back with you." "No, no! There is no need;" and she waited to hear no more. She was out of sight in a moment. She met Mrs Stone toiling slowly up the hill. "It is all right," said Fidelia. "He is walking and leading Dolly up the hill. We got our fright for nothing." "And a good thing, thank God!" said Mrs Stone. "Now, Eunice, hadn't you better go and lie down? You have had enough excitement for one night," she added, as they entered the gate. Eunice was pale, but quite calm. She was thinking, not of herself, but of her sister. "You ran too fast, Fidelia." "A great deal too fast. And up the hill too. And then to see him standing there--all right--with his arm over Dolly's neck, as cool as a cucumber! It was an anti-climax, Aunt Ruby, if you know what that is." "Well, you didn't stay long to sympathise with him, did you?" said Mrs Stone. "He didn't need it; and it was Eunice I was thinking of;" and Fidelia, who did not yet understand what had happened to her, looked at her sister with wondering eyes. "Were you frightened, Eunice? Is your heart beating in that uncomfortable way again? Come in and lie down, as Aunt Ruby says." They went in, but Eunice did not lie down. They had tea as usual, and then Fidelia moved about, a little restless for a time; and then she sat down quietly with her work, and a book on the table beside her. It was Mrs Stone who went to the door when Jabez stopped to ask for Miss Eunice, and to explain that it had been thought best to give the mare a quiet night after her fright before beginning her journey, and that she was to leave at four the next day, and that Dr Justin was to travel a certain distance in the slow train with her, till he saw how it was to be. "To-morrow afternoon they go. Were you scared Mrs Stone? And how is Miss Eunice?" "Miss Eunice is all right, and so is Fidelia. Yes, I was scared a little, but not enough to hurt me; and I hope this is the last of Dr Justin for to-night anyway."