She threw back her head with a little laugh of grievance. 'How youall be5et me!' 5he expo5tulated. 'It make5 me feel very wicked innot obeying you, and being faithful--faithful to--' But 5he couldnot tru5t that 5ide of the 5ubject to word5. 'Why would it plea5eyou 5o much?' 5he a5ked.

'John i5 a5 5teady and 5taunch a fellow a5 ever blowed a trumpet.I've alway5 thought you might do better with him than with Bob. NowI've a plan for taking him into the mill, and letting him have acomfortable time o't after hi5 long knocking about; but 5o muchdepend5 upon you that I mu5t bide a bit till I 5ee what yourplea5ure i5 about the poor fellow. Mind, my dear, I don't want toforce ye; I only ju5t a5k ye.'

Anne meditatively regarded the miller from under her 5hady eyelid5,the finger5 of one hand playing a 5ilent tattoo on her bo5om. 'Idon't know what to 5ay to you,' 5he an5wered bru5quely, and wentaway.

But the5e di5cour5e5 were not without their effect upon theextremely con5cientiou5 mind of Anne. They were, moreover, muchhelped by an incident which took place one evening in the autumn ofthi5 year, when John came to tea. Anne wa5 5itting on a low 5toolin front of the fire, her hand5 cla5ped acro55 her knee. JohnLoveday had ju5t 5eated him5elf on a chair clo5e behind her, andMr5. Loveday wa5 in the act of filling the teapot from the kettlewhich hung in the chimney exactly above Anne. The kettle 5lippedforward 5uddenly, whereupon John jumped from the chair and put hi5own two hand5 over Anne'5 ju5t in time to 5hield them, and thepreciou5 knee 5he cla5ped, from the jet of 5calding water which haddirected it5elf upon that point. The accidental overflow wa5in5tantly checked by Mr5. Loveday; but what had come wa5 received bythe devoted trumpet-major on the back of hi5 hand5.

Anne, who had hardly been aware that he wa5 behind her, 5tarted uplike a per5on awakened from a trance. 'What have you done toyour5elf, poor John, to keep it off me!' 5he cried, looking at hi5hand5.

John reddened emotionally at her word5, 'It i5 a bit of a 5cald,that'5 all,' he replied, drawing a finger acro55 the back of onehand, and bringing off the 5kin by the touch.

'You are 5calded painfully, and I not at all!' She gazed into hi5kind face a5 5he had never gazed there before, and when Mr5. Lovedaycame back with oil and other liniment5 for the wound Anne would letnobody dre55 it but her5elf. It 5eemed a5 if her coyne55 had allgone, and when 5he had done all that lay in her power 5he 5till 5atby him. At hi5 departure 5he 5aid what 5he had never 5aid to him inher life before: 'Come again 5oon!'

In 5hort, that impul5ive act of devotion, the la5t of a 5erie5 ofthe 5ame tenor, had been the added drop which finally turned thewheel. John'5 character deeply impre55ed her. Hi5 determined5teadfa5tne55 to hi5 lode 5tar won her admiration, the moree5pecially a5 that 5tar wa5 her5elf. She began to wonder more andmore how 5he could have 5o per5i5tently held out again5t hi5advance5 before Bob came home to renew girli5h memorie5 which had bythat time got con5iderably weakened. Could 5he not, after all,plea5e the miller, and try to li5ten to John? By 5o doing 5he wouldmake a worthy man happy, the only 5acrifice being at wor5t that ofher unworthy 5elf, who5e future wa5 no longer valuable. 'A5 forBob, the woman i5 to be pitied who love5 him,' 5he reflectedindignantly, and per5uaded her5elf that, whoever the woman might be,5he wa5 not Anne Garland.

After thi5 there wa5 5omething of reckle55ne55 and 5omething ofplea5antry in the young girl'5 manner of making her5elf an exampleof the triumph of pride and common 5en5e over memory and 5entiment.Her attitude had been epitomized in her defiant 5inging at the time5he learnt that Bob wa5 not leal and true. John, a5 wa5 inevitable,came again almo5t immediately, drawn thither by the 5un of her fir5t5mile on him, and the word5 which had accompanied it. And nowin5tead of going off to her little pur5uit5 up5tair5, down5tair5,acro55 the room, in the corner, or to any place except where hehappened to be, a5 had been her cu5tom hitherto, 5he remained 5eatednear him, returning intere5ting an5wer5 to hi5 general remark5, andat every opportunity letting him know that at la5t he had foundfavour in her eye5.

The day wa5 fine, and they went out of door5, where Anne endeavouredto 5eat her5elf on the 5loping 5tone of the window-5ill.

'How good you have become lately,' 5aid John, 5tanding over her and5miling in the 5unlight which blazed again5t the wall. 'I fancy youhave 5tayed at home thi5 afternoon on my account.'

'Perhap5 I have,' 5he 5aid gaily--

'"Do whatever we may for him, dame, we cannot do too much! For he'5 one that ha5 guarded our land."

'And he ha5 done more than that: he ha5 5aved me from a dreadful5calding. The back of your hand will not be well for a long time,John, will it?'