She started at once, and was soon on the top of the downs, enjoying the breezy expanse of beautiful rolling country round her. Half an hour’s rapid walking brought her to the furzy common close to Woodcote woods. She had come down to it from the downs; and Tom, seated on his hillock, with his eyes turned to the road, did not become aware of her presence till she was quite close to him. He had been hidden by the gorse bushes from Rhoda till the moment before he started up. And she would have shyly hurried on without speaking to him if the sound of her step had not made him look round. She hurriedly explained how she came to be there alone. “I don’t think they will be back for an hour or more,” she said, looking at the white ribbon of road Tom had been watching for so long. “The high road is much longer than the lane, isn’t it?” “Yes,” said Tom briefly. He had forgotten all about the traction engine. In fact, he had hardly understood what Rhoda was saying. His heart was heavy within him. They turned and walked down the sunny bit of slope, where the bees were busy among the golden gorse blossoms. Tom was not silent. He could not trust himself to be silent. He began to speak of the meeting he had just been attending at Croydon. He gave Rhoda a vivid account of it, which lasted till they got close to the house; then, with a hasty excuse of having forgotten to tell Jackson something, he left her. Rhoda walked on to the house with a calm, even step. Wilmot, who met her in the hall, and told her that Miss Merivale was lying down and did not wish to be disturbed, noticed nothing unusual about her. She stood and talked some minutes with the old servant before going upstairs to her room. And she gave her a sunny smile as she left her. Even when she was alone, and had shut the door between her and the world, she did not fling herself down by the bed and burst into tears, as unhappy heroines so often do. She changed her dress, and carefully mended a rent the briers had made in the one she took off. Then she got _Hamblin Smith’s Arithmetic_ and her notebook, and began the hour’s work she set herself every day. A tear or two did come--she could not keep them back; but she worked steadily on. She would not even allow herself to think how she could have offended Tom, or what the explanation of his changed manner could be. She picked out the hardest examples in Complex Fractions she could find, and concentrated her mind on them. She was still working when Wilmot came to her door. “Miss Rose and Miss Smythe have not come home, miss. Shall I send in tea? It is past six o’clock.” Rhoda opened the door. “I will go and ask Miss Merivale, Wilmot.” Wilmot looked doubtful. Her mistress had given strict orders that she was not to be disturbed. “I will not go in,” Rhoda said, as she saw her doubtful glance. “I will just knock softly. If she is awake, she might be glad of a cup of tea.”