Needless that she should, she told herself, smiling. Giles had his faults, but he was true! There was in his character a rock-like stability, good to lean upon. She recalled the grasp of his hand, as he drew her from the bog, and she recognised that grip to be symbolical of the strong upholding which might, perhaps, be hers for life should she one day give herself to him. Midfell village with all its simplicity, the kind old grandmother with all her honesty and goodness, could not satisfy her deeper needs. Giles only was able, she whispered to herself. And she hardly yet realised, though in a manner she had begun to know, that the deepest needs of her nature not even Giles could satisfy. When she went to bed she considered all this over again, arriving at the same conclusions with respect to Giles; and dismissing Mrs. Keith as hopelessly eccentric. It was useless to try to understand her. What a mercy Colin had not grown-up like his mother! She was dropping asleep, letting entanglements glide away. Giles' face came up, and she smiled. Then she forgot herself, and came to, and floated off again, when, like a flash of lightning, an extraordinary conjecture seized her. It was a conjecture so vivid, so startling, so far-reaching, that in a moment she was wide awake, sitting up in bed. "Nonsense! Nonsense!" she said aloud. But the possibility grew. It laid hold upon her imagination. Looking back, she saw scene after scene, heard utterance after utterance, more or less perplexing at the time—all now met, unravelled, explained, by this scathing suggestion—all lending support to it! "No, no, 'no!'" she said. "I'll never let myself think such a thing again! It's out of the question." The resolve was powerless. She could not stop thinking. Again and again that dread possibility leapt up, and "would" be faced, "would" assert itself. It cast a lurid light on past, present, future! It made perplexities clear. It set her head whirling. It could not be. It was too madly impossible. She said these words over and over, but they had no force. She could not divest herself of a growing belief that things were so. And yet, to imagine that she alone should see, that everybody else had been blind! Preposterous! She tried to laugh. "It's a nightmare! I'll go to sleep and forget!" But sleep had fled. CHAPTER XXX MRS. KEITH AND HER CORRESPONDENT TWO or three evenings later Mrs. Keith stood at her open bedroom window. Giles, before her return, had invited to dinner the Vicar and Dr. Wallace. She always set herself against attentions being paid to the doctor; but once in a while Giles put his foot down. He had done so now, and she had to give in. Mr. Dugdale also was coming. She was in one of her restless moods; frequent moods of late. She had dressed early and dismissed her maid, planning a time alone. When successful, she wished she had failed.