Jameson had prohibited it, or his own mother. We thought it must be
Mrs. Jameson, for Harry had a will of his own, as well as his mother,
and was hardly the man to yield to her in a matter of this kind
without a struggle.

Though Harry did not go to the Jameson house, I, for one, used to see
two suspicious-looking figures steal past the house in the summer
evenings; but I said nothing. There was a little grove on the north
side of our house, and there was a bench under the trees. Often I
used to see a white flutter out there of a moonlight evening, and I
knew that Harriet Jameson had a little white cloak. Louisa saw it
too, but we said nothing, though we more than suspected that Harriet
must steal out of the house after her mother had gone to her room,
which we knew was early. Hannah Bell must know if that were the case,
but she kept their secret.

Louisa and I speculated as to what was our duty if we were witnessing
clandestine meetings, but we could never bring our minds to say
anything.

The night before the Jamesons left it was moonlight and there was a
hard frost, and I saw those young things stealing down the road for
their last stolen meeting, and I pitied them. I was afraid, too, that
Harriet would take cold in the sharp air. I thought she had on a thin
cloak. Then I did something which I never quite knew whether to blame
myself for or not. It did seem to me that, if the girl were a
daughter of mine, and would in any case have a clandestine meeting
with her lover, I should prefer it to be in a warm house rather than
in a grove on a frosty night. So I caught a shawl from the table, and
ran out to the front door, and called.