The shelf she was following led past the narrow ravine, with its many pathways cut in the steep sides all running towards the great shaft, fenced in with blocks of stone. She had been there several times with her father, bearing him company during his walks in search of minerals, so that the way was perfectly familiar to her, though it was a place not to be approached without a feeling of dread. Country superstition had made it the home of the old miners, who now and then revisited the glimpses of the moon; two people had been, it was said, murdered there, and their bodies hidden in the dark, wet mazes of the workings; and within the recollection of the oldest inhabitant an unhappy forsaken maiden, who feared to face the reproaches of her relatives, had sought oblivion in the water at the bottom of the principal shaft, and her body had never been found. It was an uncanny place on a bright sunny day--after night a spot to be avoided for many reasons; but Dinah Gurdon approached it now with feelings of hope, for she felt that the man who was in charge would leave her there if she only maintained her firmness. "Why, what a silly little thing it is!" he said, in a low, eager voice, his words sounding subdued and confidential as he uttered them close to her ear. "What are you afraid of? Why, bless your pretty heart, it's plain to see you haven't been troubled much by the stupid bumpkins about here. Running away like that just because a man tells you he loves you. And I do, my pretty one, and have ever since I came down here. Soon as I clapped eyes on you, I says to myself, `That's the lass for me.' Why, I've done down here what I haven't done since I left Sunday-school--I've come three Sundays running to church, so as to see your bonny face. I saw you come by this morning when I was yonder leaning over the fence. `Going to market,' I says. `Wonder whether she'd bring me an ounce of tobacco from the shop, if I asked her?' But I was just too late, so I sat down and waited for you. `She won't want me to be seen with her in the village,' I said. `Girls like to keep these things quiet at first.' So do I, dear. I say, it's pretty lonesome for me down here till they begin working, but I've got plenty of time for you, so let's make good use of it while we can." Dinah paid no heed to his words in her alarm, but they forced themselves upon her unwilling ears, as she hurried through the solitary place, feeling that every step took her nearer home, and toward the entrance to the mine gap, where this man would leave her.