I turned to speak to him, to find that he was still standing, hat in hand, gazing down the path by which the sisters had gone; then it seemed to me that he drew a long breath as he stood looking at me apparently, but evidently recalling that which was past. "Oh, Mr Hallett!" I cried enthusiastically, and with all the impulsiveness of a boy; "isn't she beautiful?" "As beautiful as true, Grace," he said softly, and his manner seemed reverent and strange. "She was so kind to me--spoke so kindly for me when I first came to the office," I cried. "Yes, my boy," he said in the same low, soft voice; "you are very fortunate--you have found a true friend." "And I will try," I cried. "She shall find that I have remembered what she told me." "Come and sit down here, my boy," he said, throwing himself upon a patch of heath and fern. "Let's forget the smell of oil and steam and printing-ink for a time. Come and tell me all about your meeting with Miss Carr." I was eager to tell him, and I had a willing listener, and as I sat there at his feet I told him of the interview at the office, and all about how Mr Lister seemed so attentive to Miss Carr: what he had said, and how he seemed to love her. In my ignorance I dwelt at length upon even Mr Ruddle's words of congratulation, talking rapidly and well in my enthusiasm--blind and ignorant that I was--for I could not read then why the lines in Stephen Hallett's face grew deeper and more marked, nor yet why his eyelids should droop down, and then his head, till it rested upon one hand, while the other plucked slowly at the strands of grass and scraps of heath. Once or twice I thought he was asleep, but if I stopped he spoke to me softly, asking some questions till I had done, when he startled me again with inquiries about myself and my old life, gradually winning from me all I had to tell. The sun had set, and the soft evening shadows were descending as we still sat there drinking in the moist fresh air of the forest, till, as if rousing himself from a dream, Mr Hallett rose hastily, and I too sprang to my feet. "Come, Grace," he said, with an effort to be cheerful, "we must get back to the inn, or we shall be left behind. One minute, though; let us walk along here." I looked at him wonderingly as he strode hastily to where we had met the ladies, and I saw that he had removed his hat as he stood gazing slowly around. It might have been from the heat, but I do not think so now; and he was just turning away, when I saw him stoop hastily and snatch from among the ferns a grey kid glove. "Why, that must be Miss Carr's," I said eagerly. "Yes," he replied softly; "it is Miss Carr's." He stood holding it pressed in his hand; and his brow was knit, and he stood gazing straight before him, struggling with himself before saying, as he doubled the glove: "You must take it back, my boy. You will see her again; perhaps I never shall."