"We will walk, too, Peggy!" and Peggy turned without a word and walked away by his side. Her little face looked very white in the moonlight, and the meekness with which she had agreed to his command was so unusual that Rob looked down at her with an anxious scrutiny. "You sha'n't walk all the way," he said, "only just as far as the vicarage, then you can take Mellicent's seat, but I wanted to have you to myself for a few minutes first. I want to speak to you." "And I to you. Oh, Rob, I have not thanked you half enough, and yet I want to scold you too. When I asked you to help me, I never meant for a moment that you should risk your own life--" "I know that, Peg; but it was not so great a risk as you think, for I am almost as much at home in the water as on land, and even if my strength had given out, I could have floated ashore with the tide. It was well worth risking, after what you told me." "Ah, yes, you have saved Mrs Asplin a terrible experience. You may have saved her life--and think how much that means to every one who knows her! You couldn't have a better reward, Rob." "I have pleased you, Peggy!" said Rob simply. He made no protestation, but Peggy understood all that the words implied, and her heart beat fast with happiness. They had taken the path across the fields, following the lead of the lovers, whose figures could be seen ahead like two dark shadows, flitting through the trees, and after these words of Rob's they walked in silence until the first stile was reached. Rob was over in one spring, for his long legs found no difficulty in leaping so low a barrier, but Peggy made three steps of it, and in the last of the three found her way blocked by a tall, black figure. Rob's hands clasped hers, Rob's eyes looked into her face, and Rob's voice cried with a tremor of nervousness in the deep tones: "Is this _my_ Peggy? Does she belong to me?" "Yes, Rob, always! She always did; but you--you didn't trust her," replied Peggy, with a firmness which ended in a sob. "You took for granted--" "Peggy, I didn't!" cried Rob earnestly. "Don't think so poorly of me. I know to what you refer--that afternoon in the library--and now I can explain all that has troubled you. I had a talk with Hector after you left, and we discovered that we both wanted the same thing. He thought he had the first claim, and that it was my duty to stand aside until he had had his chance, and I agreed that he was right. Not because he was the older! I would not have acknowledged such a plea in this matter, but because he had so much more to offer you. Compared to myself he is a rich man, and you would have been better off with him. I promised to stand aside and put no obstacle in his way, and having given a promise I tried to keep it unselfishly, and to show you that I cared for your happiness before my own by remaining friendly and pleasant."