"A woman?" fearlessly.
"No. My son. And he was taken from me—for ever, I thought at the time. And after that I made the Discovery."
The little lady nodded.
"It's worth making," she said.
"Yes," replied the old man with the sudden leaping enthusiasm she remembered so well of old, and the same spreading flush, "and you don't make it till you've lost everything. That's the condition."
He had turned and was rambling along at her side, as if he had belonged to her for the thirty years in which they had not met.
They walked together thus down the New Road, along Rectory Walk, and turned into Church Street.
Anne Caspar from the bedroom-window saw them pass and wondered.
They were not talking: Anne was glad of that. Her Ned was ambling along, apparently unaware of the little lady, strong as she was fine, walking at his side.
The pair turned down the hill at Billing's Corner.