How she had known it she could not have said, but the wild clamour of her heart stifled any reasoning that she might have tried to form. Her breath came and went like the breath of a hunted creature. She could not hurry because of the trembling of her knees. Every instinct was urging her to flee, but she lacked the strength. She drew instead nearer to the wall, hoping against hope that in the gathering darkness he would pass her by. Nearer and nearer came the hammering hoofs. She could hear the horse's sharp breathing, the creak of leather. And then suddenly she found she could go no further. She stopped and leaned against the wall. She saw the animal pulled suddenly in, and knew that she was caught. With a great effort she lifted a smiling face, and simulated surprise. "You! How do you do?" "You knew it was me," said Piers rather curtly. He dropped from the saddle with the easy grace that always marked his movements, and came to her, leaving the animal free. "Why were you running away from me?" he said. "Did you want to cut me?" He must have felt the trembling of her hand, for all in a moment his manner changed. His fingers closed upon hers with warm assurance. He suddenly laughed into her face. "Don't answer either of those questions!" he said. "Didn't you expect to see me? We came home yesterday, thank the gods! I'm deadly sick of being away." "Haven't you enjoyed yourself?" Avery managed to ask. He laughed again somewhat grimly. "I wasn't out for enjoyment. I've been--amusing myself more or less. But that's not the same thing, is it? I should have drowned myself if I'd stayed out there much longer." "Don't talk nonsense!" said Avery. She spoke with a touch of sharpness. Her agitation had passed leaving her vexed with herself and with him. He received the admonition with a grimace. "Have you heard about my engagement yet?" he enquired irrelevantly, after a moment. Avery looked at him very steadily through the falling dusk. She had a feeling that he was trying to hoodwink her by some means not wholly praiseworthy. "Are you engaged?" she asked him, point-blank. He made a careless gesture. "Everybody says so." "Are you engaged?" Avery repeated with resolution. She freed her hand as she uttered the question the second time. She was standing up very straight against the churchyard wall sternly determined to check all trifling. Piers straightened himself also. From the pride of his attitude she thought that he was about to take offence, but his voice held none as he made reply. "I am not." She felt as if some constriction at her heart, of which till that moment she had scarcely been aware, had suddenly slackened. She drew a long, deep breath. "Sorry, what?" suggested Piers. He began to tap a careless tattoo with his whip on the toe of his boot. He did not appear to be regarding her very closely. Yet she did not feel at her ease. That sudden sense as of strain relaxed had left her curiously unsteady.