"You thought of something else besides patching then," persisted Cathy, rebelliously. "My dear, I love sewing; and then what else can one do when one is not clever. I used to wish I could find work in some children's hospital; nursing is my forte, you know. I think I could have been quite happy if I had some young creatures round me. I tried for a little while, you remember; and then Cara wanted me, and I came home." "And I have never forgiven Cara to this day," was the angry response. "You looked like a different woman when you came home from Carlisle, Miss Faith,--years younger and brighter, and--" "Hush, my dear, hush! I am not very clever, but I have learned one thing,--never to leave a certain duty for an uncertain one. It is a safe rule; you will find it so, Cathy. I often think of my children, and long to be back with them; but nothing would induce me to leave Cara while she wants me." There was a slight lull in the conversation, and Miss Faith's voice dropped to a whisper. A fresh wind blew over the wide moor. Some black-faced mountain sheep browsed among the heather; one of them had strayed on to the line, and the little engine slackened speed. The wild, somewhat barren scenery, the novel mode of traffic, the sweet moorland air, charmed and exhilarated Queenie; she squeezed Emmie's hand as she whispered to her, "Don't you love Miss Faith?" "Faith waiting on Charity," she said to herself with a little sigh. The quarry was in sight by this time. Trucks of the blasted stones were being shunted hither and thither; then came the work-sheds and ponderous machinery. Queenie followed the others, as Garth led them from one point to another. She listened as breathlessly as Emmie to his description of the blasting; she tried to imagine the vast report echoing over those lonely moors, the terrified sheep huddled far away in heaps, the masses of fallen rocks, and then started a little as she found Garth looking down at her with earnest eyes. "All this is new to you, a fresh experience. You have not hewn lessons out of rocks all your life long, as I have," observed the young man sententiously. "No," she answered a little timidly; "but then I am only a governess." "That means a bookworm. Are you very learned, Miss Marriott? I wonder you have not frightened Langley. Rocks and men have been my books," continued Garth, waving his hand at the rough cliff half torn down, but wearing graceful fronds of ferns in its crevices. "There are hard durable lessons to be learnt here: how to overcome difficulties, how to war with opposition. I would rather be here among my quarrymen than on the benches of the House of Commons." Queenie gave a swift upward glance, but did not answer. "A king among men," she was saying to herself softly.