"Hulloa!" he said. "Where are you going?"
"I'm with Peter and Nan. We're going to see Tom Triggs. He's going away."
"Oh, that's your friend, is it? And your aunt knows?"
Colonel Keith knew all about the forbidden visits; for Harebell had besought him to help her, and he had been doing his best in that way.
"Oh yes," Harebell said with assurance; "she has given me leave to-day."
"And is it to be a wife, or work, or a cottage?" Harebell laughed, and ran on. She was breathless when she stood at the cottage door.
Tom himself came to open it, and smiled all over his face when he saw who it was.
"Why, I thought you and me was friends no longer!" he said.
Harebell seized hold of his hand.
"Oh, Tom, dear Tom, don't go away! Do stay and have a little cottage here. I don't want you to go."