Why did Argemone withdraw her arm from his? He knew, and he felt that she was entrusted to him. He turned away from the subject. 'I wonder whether they are safe home by this time?' 'I hope my father will not catch cold. How sad, Mr. Smith, that he will swear so. I do not like to say it; and yet you must have heard him too often yourself.' 'It is hardly a sin with him now, I think. He has become so habituated to it, that he attaches no meaning or notion whatsoever to his own oaths. I have heard him do it with a smiling face to the very beggar to whom he was giving half-a-crown. We must not judge a man of his school by the standard of our own day.' 'Let us hope so,' said Argemone, sadly. There was another pause. At a turn of the hill road the black masses of beech-wood opened, and showed the Priory lights twinkling right below. Strange that Argemone felt sorry to find herself so near home. 'We shall go to town next week,' said she; "and then--You are going to Norway this summer, are you not?' 'No. I have learnt that my duty lies nearer home.' 'What are you going to do?' 'I wish this summer, for the first time in my life, to try and do some good--to examine a little into the real condition of English working men.' 'I am afraid, Mr. Smith, that I did not teach you that duty.' 'Oh, you have taught me priceless things! You have taught me beauty is the sacrament of heaven, and love its gate; that that which is the most luscious is also the most pure.' 'But I never spoke a word to you on such subjects.' 'There are those, Miss Lavington, to whom a human face can speak truths too deep for books.' Argemone was silent; but she understood him. Why did she not withdraw her arm a second time? In a moment more the colonel hailed them from the dog-cart and behind him came the britschka with a relay of servants. They parted with a long, lingering pressure of the hand, which haunted her young palm all night in dreams. Argemone got into the carriage, Lancelot jumped into the dog-cart, took the reins, and relieved his heart by galloping Sandy up the hill, and frightening the returning coachman down one bank and his led horses up the other. 'Vogue la Galere, Lancelot? I hope you have made good use of your time?' But Lancelot spoke no word all the way home, and wandered till dawn in the woods around his cottage, kissing the hand which Argemone's palm had pressed. CHAPTER VIII: WHITHER?