The girl sprang to her feet--not clumsily, but with infinite grace--and leaned over his shoulder eagerly. "Why, father, it is the poems you promised me, and it was in your pocket all the while I was wearying you with my foolish questions." "Tut, tut! Take your book, child, and devour it, as usual." Once or twice Gideon looked up, roused from his reverie by the rustling of the trees as the gusts shook them, and suddenly the sky was rent by a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder, followed by the heavy rattle of the rainstorm. "Hark at the night, father!" she said, raising her eyes from the book, but only for a moment. "Ay, Una," he said, "some of the old elms will fall to-night. Woodman Lightning strikes with a keen ax." Suddenly there came another sound which, coming in an interval of comparative quiet, caused Una to look up with surprise. "Halloa there! open the door." Gideon sprang to his feet, his face pale with anger. "Go to your room, Una," he said. She rose and moved across the room to obey, but before she had passed up the stairs the woodman had opened the door, and the voice came in from the outside, and she paused almost unconsciously. "At last! What a time you have been! I've knocked loud enough to wake the dead. For Heaven's sake, open the door and let me in. I'm drenched to the skin." "This is not an inn, young sir." "No, or it would soon come to ruin with such a landlord. It's something with four walls and a roof, and I must be content with that. You don't mean to say that you won't let me come in?" "I do not keep open house for travelers." "Oh, come," exclaimed the young man, with a short laugh. "It's your own fault that I am back here; you told me the wrong turning. I'll swear I followed your directions. I must have been walking in a circle; anyhow I lost my way, and here I am, and, with all your churlishness, you can't refuse me shelter on such a night as this." "The storm has cleared. It is but an hour's walk to Arkdale; I will go with you." "That you certainly will not, to-night, nor any other man," was the good-humored retort. "I've had enough of your confounded forest for to-night. Why, man, are you afraid to let me in? It's a nasty thing to have to do, but----" and with a sudden thrust of his strong shoulder he forced the door open and passed the threshold. But the woodman recovered from the surprise in a moment and, seizing him by the throat, was forcing him out again, when, with a low cry, Una sprang forward and laid her hand on his arm. At her touch Gideon's hands dropped to his side. The stranger sprang upright, but almost staggered out with discomfited astonishment. For the first time in her life she stood face to face with a man other than a woodman or a charcoal-burner. And as she looked her heart almost stopped beating, the color died slowly from her face. Was it real, or was it one of the visionary heroes of her books created into life from her own dreaming brain?