“Go on, Charles,” Barnard told his boy, impatiently. “The broad path, Charles. Go on.” But their son shook his head stubbornly; and his eyes were meeting the eyes of the girl, across the field. Barnard started to protest in anger; but Anne looked at her son, and saw whither his eyes led; and she followed his eyes and saw the girl. The girl smiled at Anne, very humbly and beseechingly; and Anne put her hand to her throat and trembled. Then she turned to Barnard, nodding ever so little; and she reached up to brush back a lock of hair upon the forehead of her tall son, and she buttoned a button of his coat. “Go bravely, Charles,” she whispered. “Good-by.” He kissed her hurriedly. “I’ll be back,” he promised. “I’m not going far away from you.” Anne shook her head wistfully; but Charles was already running down the narrow path and did not see; and when Dick shouted after him, Charles did not hear. They watched, and after a little they saw Charles and the girl come together; and presently their son and the strange girl went happily off across the meadow, out of their sight, hand in hand.... IX When Barnard, and Anne, and Dick went on, Barnard thought in his dream that he and Anne held Dick’s hands more tightly than before. And when, presently, he saw another girl, walking alone upon a distant path, he caught Anne’s eye behind Dick’s back, and pointed this girl out to her. Then he and Anne conspired against their son; they left the broad path for another, narrower. They pointed out to Dick the wonders of the way, and talked eagerly to him, and caressed him. But after a time, they saw that the girl’s path had curved to follow them; and at length, while they spoke together, Dick turned to look back, and his eyes met the eyes of the girl.... X Thereafter Barnard and Anne moved alone together; and though Barnard, in his dream, felt Anne’s hand in his, his heart ached with loneliness. Anne smiled bravely beside him, but her smile was worse than tears. They seemed to have lost their path. They no longer went confidently along a broad way, but wandered aimlessly this way and that. They tried new paths that led nowhere; and there were times when they stood still, clinging each to each. The Threat above them, Barnard saw, was floating lower. In his dream, Barnard thought that he and Anne came to a path which followed the brink of a great precipice. They walked that way. His arm was about her, hers clasped him. She was talking very gaily; she had never been so beautiful. Barnard forgot The Threat for a moment; and when uneasy recollection returned to him, and his eyes sought for it, he saw that the cloudlike thing had descended till it rode level with them, and at one side, above the abyss at their left hand. It hung there, following them as they followed the brink of the precipice.