She put the lamp upon the table and stood, half-turned to the door, listening. Oh! if only he could have known the vital fear gnawing at her heart-strings--he was late; had he not come, had he heard anything, _was he not coming_? Would she have to wait for Lucius Danby after all? Well, she had not dismissed Lucius yet, that letter would only go after she was another man's wife; he need never know---- 'Clothilde!' It was Mr. Severn's voice. He was close to her, so close indeed that his eager eyes, dimmed with happiness, had no time to see a swift convulsive shadow that swept over her face, seeming to recall her from some pleasant dream to a reality that was repugnant to every sense. For a moment she stood motionless as though paralysed. He seized her hands. They were icy-cold. 'Clothilde,' he said again, 'my darling, my----' She turned. Another instant and she was in his arms and had thrown her arms round his neck. No! no! she had not longed for Lucius! _This_ was what she had wanted. The haunting fear lest it should fail her was gone--a fear she would never have known had she not failed another. But he did not know this. He thought she truly loved him and him only. CHAPTER I OLD LAFER 'Now children, come in; bed-time!' 'Oh Anna!' came in a muffled reproachful chorus as four lap-cocks in the meadow into which Anna Hugo was looking over the garden wall at Old Lafer, sat up and revealed four children. Three were girls, by name Antoinette, Emmeline, and Joan. All were handsome--with creamy skins, dark eyes, and curly brown hair hanging to their waists over holland smocks. These smocks were cut low at the neck and short-sleeved, allowing rebellious shoulders to push themselves with shrugs and twists from their confinement and showing dimpled, nut-brown elbows. Anna smiled as the children pushed back their hair and turned their flushed faces to her. She wondered whose voice would be the first to protest against her hard-heartedness. 'We're playing at graves,' said Emmeline timidly, winks and nods having failed to make Antoinette take the lead. 'For the very last time this year,' said Antoinette. 'Because this is the very last hay left out at Old Lafer; Elias says so,' said Jack. 'Well, of course it is,' said Antoinette; 'haven't we played graves in all the other fields in turn, silly boy?' 'Elias won't be long now, Anna,' said Emmeline. 'He's clearing the last sledge-load by the beck, and the game is he should guess which lap-cock is which of us.' 'And when he guesses right we give him a kiss,' said Joan. 'I don't,' said Jack. 'Because you're only a boy,' said Antoinette, whose vocation it seemed to snub Jack and thus temper any yielding to him as the only boy, to which others might be tempted.