"Sir!" She angrily snatched it away. At the same moment she saw Geoffrey looking through the parted bushes behind Valentine, who did not know he was so near. "A moment!" cried Valentine, in the flood of his passion. "Listen. I love--" But she rushed from him. Valentine followed her. Geoffrey let the bushes come together, and Valentine did not see him. Margaret went towards May's merry laugh, which she could hear not far off. "May! May!" "Here I am--by the oak." Then Felix, knowing his _tete-a-tete_ with May was almost at an end, snatched a kiss. "I will go up to the mill again," said he. "I will succeed this time." "Beware of the blackthorn," laughed May, and was very innocently engaged looking at a sprig of oak with three young acorns on it when Margaret came. "I am glad I have found you." "You have torn your sleeve!" "In the briars--see my thumb." "Aphrodite has pricked her hand instead of her foot this time," said Felix. "We shall see a new flower in the spring. Let me bind it up?" and he wrapped May's handkerchief round it. Then Geoffrey and Valentine came, apart and yet together. "I think it is time to return home," said May, guessing at once from the expression of their faces and Margaret's manner that something was wrong. "Yes, I think so too," said Margaret. "We have plenty of nuts." The joy of the day was over; so easily can a few jarring words cloud the loveliest sky and darken the sweetest landscape. They left the wood and returned to Greene Ferne. As they approached the house a labouring man advanced and spoke to Margaret. "Be this yourn, miss?" he said, and offered her the lost earring. "I found un on the Down by the Cave, as you and measter here," (looking at Geoffrey), "thuck night--" "Wait a moment," said Margaret, in confusion, for the night adventure had been carefully kept secret from all but Mrs Estcourt. "I will come to you in a moment." Valentine heard the man's words, and noted his reference to Geoffrey. Instantly his jealousy was aroused--here was something secret. What had they to do with the Cave at night? Nor was Margaret's halting explanation, that she had dropped it while riding, satisfactory to him. Altogether the situation was constrained. Both Valentine and Geoffrey stayed at the house as late as they could purposely, but neither found an opportunity of speaking alone with Margaret. When they left Greene Ferne the two old friends at once took different roads. Valentine, walking through the village, ascended a slight hill, and overtook an old woman of the working class, who was groaning and mumbling to herself, and bent almost double under a large bundle of gleanings on her shoulder, and a heavy basket in her hand. As he came up, he good-naturedly took the basket to relieve her, and accommodated his pace to hers. "You seem to have a heavy load," he said. In the dusk the old hag either did not recognise him, or perhaps did not care if she did.