‘Ah! ah!’ she sighed to herself. And then, with a sudden movement, she threw up her arms, and clasped them above her head. For a few minutes she remained in that attitude, with her face averted; and, then, letting her arms drop slowly, she turned to him again. If some excitement had caused that sudden gesture it was only visible now in the glow upon her face. She had her former expression of sympathy and interest; her voice was a murmur; and, as she spoke she looked at him. ‘And you--you,’ she whispered; ‘what do you do with yourself all day? Are you always working?’ and, as she looked, she smiled. Nat did not know what to do with her glances or her smiles, but he made an effort to answer, as he had done before. ‘I’m at work most-whiles, miss, at the hay, or with the Squire. I don’t get let off, not till the evening come.’ ‘But in the evening you have some time for yourself? Do you think you would be able to do some work for me?’ She looked at him with her gleaming smile again. ‘I’d be most glad, miss,’ cried Nat, with a sudden thrill--he could not understand, poor boy, why he cared so much. But, on her part, she seemed to understand quite well, as she stood with her arms drooping, and her fingers clasped. ‘Then come up to me,’ she murmured.... ‘Come at eight o’clock, and I will give you work to do.... And do not talk to too many people about it, they gossip so in the village about everything.... I want to hear about your mother, and your family .... your sister, and everything else.... Here is my brother, I hear him, you must go.’ Her movement was so sudden that he retreated hastily; the door was closed upon him, and he found himself in the passage and alone. Alone, confused, bewildered by the darkness, not knowing in his bewilderment what to do or what to think, with the voice of the stranger still within his ears, with her face and the lighted room before his eyes! Oh, what did it all mean, what had he been doing since he left his home? Scarcely conscious of his actions, he stumbled through the passage, and into the dark yard, and then into the road. Tired, hungry, and giddy, with his head confused, with the remembrance again of his mother’s anger, he stumbled along to the ledge where he had rested, and sat down on that, and vexed himself, and cried. But there was no good in crying alone there in the night, and he dragged himself to his feet, and wandered on.