"No, O no," she said eagerly. "Aunt Henrietta thought as I had a headache I had better go out. She wanted some ferns, so I went towards Stanton, but it really is the worst of living near a town that one cannot escape from people. One might expect the Stanton road to be quiet, mightn't one?" He took no notice of this appeal. He believed all that she said implicitly, and her secret uneasiness had not in the least touched his consciousness. He was looking at the sinking sun, at the water moving slowly away, at the moments, perhaps, that were passing. She became more uneasy at his silence, but it was so unlike what she had been expecting when he at last spoke, that her breath seemed to fail her. "Ada," he said quickly, "I have behaved very ill to you." The ring of pain in his voice was too unmistakable to admit of the possibility of a thought that he was not speaking in earnest, which would otherwise have been her first reflection. But it was an instantaneous relief that he should be blaming himself and not her. "Have you?" she said, with a little laugh, "I dare say you have. Old White, who was my nurse, used to say one should never trust any one. But I don't know--I have not found her words altogether true as yet." And she slipped her hand into his arm with a little caressing touch which added tenfold to the difficulty of his task. "I shall never forget your trust in me. I can never forget that when other friends were ready at once to think evil, your generous belief never wavered," he went on, speaking nervously, and not looking at her. "It is partly on that account, and because I feel it is impossible to repay that debt, that I must tell you the truth now." She was a little startled and uneasy again at his manner. Her imagination was not quick except in matters which concerned herself; but she began to picture the possibility of Anthony having done something much more dreadful than that act of simply leaving a suggestion unnoticed, which had never seemed to her such a mighty matter. Perhaps all his money was to be taken away from him. She drew back her hand and waited. The sun was gone, the sail had passed out of sight, Anthony went on more rapidly when he no longer felt the touch upon his arm. "I knew that I was grateful; I was conscious of the relief and comfort that Mr Bennett's house, with its kind atmosphere of welcome, never failed to give,--selfishly conscious, I am afraid. And so I asked you to be my wife." He stopped suddenly again, and looked at her for the first time, with a troubled imploring look, as if her mind must have leaped to the understanding of what he was trying to say, and no further words were needed. But except that she was relieved from her first fear, she did not understand in the least.