For a moment he returned her gaze in reproachful amazement. Then, stretching his hand out towards the east, replied,—
"As sure as the sun will rise there to-morrow, so surely will I return. What have I said or done that you should doubt me now—you who have trusted me so generously?"
"I cannot tell. I have a strange feeling that I cannot get out of my head; and yet I'm sure you would laugh were you to hear it, Mr. Lisle."
"Gilbert," he corrected.
"Yes, Gilbert," she repeated softly.
"I must tell you, Helen, what I have more than once been tempted to confide to you. I am not what I seem. I——"
"It was not captain Durand, after all," interrupted a harsh female voice close by, and at this critical moment Mrs. Creery and Dr. Parkes came swooping down from the hill-top.
"Helen and Mr. Lisle! Well, I declare! Pray do you know that every one is going home? What can you have been thinking of? The band played 'God save the Queen' half an hour ago."
Mr. Lisle drew himself up to his full height (which was five feet ten), and looked as if he wished the good lady—say, at Jericho; and Helen fumbled with her fan, and murmured some incoherent excuse. They both hung back, evidently expecting and hoping that the elder couple would lead the way down the hill; but, alas! for their expectations, Mrs. Creery suddenly put out a plump hand and drew Helen's reluctant one under her own arm, saying, as she shouldered herself between her and her cavalier,—
"Come along with me; it's high time little girls like you were at home," and without another word Helen was, as it were, marched off under a strong escort in the direction of the ball-room.