"Hamblyn?" he questioned slowly. "I hate the Hamblyns--I hate the very name! All except the squire's little maid," and he closed his eyes, and was silent for several moments. Then he went on again-- "I wish I could hate the squire's little maid too, but I can't. I've tried hard, but I can't. She's so pretty, and she's to marry an old man, old enough to be her grandfather. Oh, it's a shame, for he'll break her heart. If I were only a rich man I'd steal her." "Hush, hush!" she said quickly. "Do you know what you are saying?" He opened his eyes slowly and looked at her again, but there was no clear light of recognition in them. For several minutes he talked incessantly on all sorts of subjects, but in the end he got back to the question that for the moment seemed to dominate all the rest. "You can't be the squire's little maid," he said, "for she is going to marry an old man. Don't you think it is a sin?" "Hush, hush!" she said, in a whisper. "I think it's a sin," he went on. "And if I were rich and strong I wouldn't allow it. I wish she were poor, and lived in a cottage; then I would work and work, and wait and hope, and--and----" "Yes?" she questioned. "We would fight the world together," he said, after a long pause. She did not reply, but a mist came up before her eyes and blotted out the surrounding belt of trees, and the noise of the wind seemed to die suddenly away into silence, and a new world opened up before her--a land where springtime always dwelt, and beauty never grew old. Ralph lay quite still, with his head upon her lap. He appeared to have relapsed into unconsciousness again. She brushed her hand across her eyes at length and looked at him, and as she did so her heart fluttered strangely and uncomfortably in her bosom. A curious spell seemed to be upon her. Her nerves thrilled with an altogether new sensation. She grew almost frightened, and yet she had no desire to break the spell; the pleasure infinitely exceeded the pain. She felt like one who had strayed unconsciously into forbidden ground, and yet the landscape was so beautiful, and the fragrance of the flowers was so sweet, and the air was so soft and cool, and the music of the birds and the streams was so delicious, that she had neither the courage nor the inclination to go away. She did not try to analyse this new sensation that thrilled her to the finger-tips. She did not know what it meant, or what it portended. She took her pocket-handkerchief at length and began to wipe the bloodstains from Ralph's face, and while she did so the warm colour mounted to her own cheeks.