When their voices reached the Vicar's ears, he paused in his reading, and a look of pleasure softened his white face, but only for an instant, for as the young men passed the window a dark and mournful look chased away the momentary softness.
"Soon!" he said, "soon I will tell him he ought to be prepared—I will tell him!"
It was no easy matter next day to find Valmai, though Cardo and Gwynne
Ellis sought for her over shore and cliff and by the brawling Berwen.
They were returning disconsolate through the turnip fields at noon,
when Cardo caught sight of a red spot in the middle of a corn-field.
"There she is, Ellis," he said, turning round; "have we time to go back?"
"What! that little scarlet poppy in the corn?"
"Yes; it is Valmai's red hood; she wears it sometimes, and sometimes a broad-brimmed white hat."
Ellis looked at his watch.
"Too late to go back now; it is close upon one o'clock."
"Deucedly provoking!" said Cardo; "we will try again after dinner."
But after dinner they seemed to be no more successful, although they found their way into the very field where they had seen the red hood.