Meanwhile Mrs. Melbury, deserted by Grace, had perceived Fitzpiers and

Winterborne, and also the move of the latter. An improvement on

Grammer's idea entered the mind of Mrs. Melbury, for she had lately

discerned what her husband had not--that Grace was rapidly fascinating

the surgeon. She therefore drew near to Fitzpiers.

"You should be where Mr. Winterborne is standing," she said to him,

significantly. "She will run down through that opening much faster

than she went up it, if she is like the rest of the girls."

Fitzpiers did not require to be told twice. He went across to

Winterborne and stood beside him. Each knew the probable purpose of

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the other in standing there, and neither spoke, Fitzpiers scorning to

look upon Winterborne as a rival, and Winterborne adhering to the

off-hand manner of indifference which had grown upon him since his

dismissal.

Neither Grammer nor Marty South had seen the surgeon's manoeuvre, and,

still to help Winterborne, as she supposed, the old woman suggested to

the wood-girl that she should walk forward at the heels of Grace, and

"tole" her down the required way if she showed a tendency to run in

another direction. Poor Marty, always doomed to sacrifice desire to

obligation, walked forward accordingly, and waited as a beacon, still

and silent, for the retreat of Grace and her giddy companions, now

quite out of hearing.

The first sound to break the silence was the distant note of Great

Hintock clock striking the significant hour. About a minute later that

quarter of the wood to which the girls had wandered resounded with the

flapping of disturbed birds; then two or three hares and rabbits

bounded down the glade from the same direction, and after these the

rustling and crackling of leaves and dead twigs denoted the hurried

approach of the adventurers, whose fluttering gowns soon became

visible. Miss Melbury, having gone forward quite in the rear of the

rest, was one of the first to return, and the excitement being

contagious, she ran laughing towards Marty, who still stood as a

hand-post to guide her; then, passing on, she flew round the fatal bush

where the undergrowth narrowed to a gorge. Marty arrived at her heels

just in time to see the result. Fitzpiers had quickly stepped forward

in front of Winterborne, who, disdaining to shift his position, had

turned on his heel, and then the surgeon did what he would not have

thought of doing but for Mrs. Melbury's encouragement and the sentiment

of an eve which effaced conventionality. Stretching out his arms as

the white figure burst upon him, he captured her in a moment, as if she

had been a bird.




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