'Oh, Rachel, it is a great blow--maybe if you thought it over!--I'll wait
any time.'

'No, Lord Chelford, I'm quite unworthy of your preference; but time
cannot change me--and I am speaking, not from impulse, but conviction.
This is our secret--yours and mine--and we'll forget it; and I could not
bear to lose your friendship--you'll be my friend still--won't you?
Good-bye.'

'God bless you, Rachel!' And he hurriedly kissed the hand she had placed
in his, and without a word more, or looking back, he walked swiftly down
the wooded road towards Gylingden.

So, then, it had come and gone--gone for ever.

'Margery, bring the basket in; I think a shower is coming.'

And she picked up her trowel and other implements, and placed them in the
porch, and glanced up towards the clouds, as if she saw them, and had
nothing to think of but her gardening and the weather, and as if her
heart was not breaking.




CHAPTER LIII.

THE VICAR'S COMPLICATIONS, WHICH LIVELY PEOPLE HAD BETTER NOT READ.