Up the avenue, up the steps, into the hall, and, taking chance, into this room, walked Cleve Verney, without encountering interruption or even observation. _Fortuna favet fortibus_, so runs the legend in faded gold letters, under the dim portrait of Sir Thomas Verney, in his armour, fixed in the panel of the hall. So it had proved with his descendant. Favoured by fortune, without having met a human being, and directed by the same divinity it would seem, he had entered the room I have described; and at the other end, alone, awaiting Miss Sheckleton, who was to accompany her in a little ramble among the woods, stood Miss Fanshawe, dressed for her walk. In came Cleve pale with agitation; approached her quickly, and stopped short, saying-- "I've come; I'm here to ask--how could you--my God!--how _could_ you write the letter you sent this morning?" Miss Fanshawe was leaning a little against the oak window-frame, and did not change this pose, which was haughty and almost sullen. "_Why_ I wrote that letter, _no_ one has a right to ask me, and I shall say no more than is contained in the letter itself." She spoke so coldly and quietly that there seemed almost a sadness in her tones. "I don't think you can really mean it," said Cleve, "I'm _sure_ you can't; you can't _possibly_ think that any one would use another so, without a reason." "_Not_ without a reason," said she. "But I say, surely I have a right to hear it," urged Cleve. "Is it fair to condemn me, as your letter does, unheard, and to punish me, in ignorance?" "_Not_ in ignorance; at this moment, you _know_ the reason perfectly," replied the girl, and he felt as if her great hazel eyes lighted up all the dark labyrinths of his brain, and disclosed every secret that lurked there. Cleve was for a moment embarrassed, and averted his eyes. It was true. He _did_ know; he could not fail to guess the cause. He had been cursing his ill luck all the morning, and wondering what malign caprice could have led her, of all times and places, at that moment, to the Green of Cardyllian.