"Do you know what time it is?" Helen asked in a small voice.
He held his watch sideways, but he had to strike a match, and its light drew all the eyes of the moor.
"Quick!" Helen said.
He was not to be hurried. "Not far off midnight."
"And Rupert's waiting! Good-night, George."
"And you've forgiven me?" he asked as they parted at the gate.
"No." She laughed almost as Miriam might have done, and startled him. "I'll forgive you," she said, "I'll forgive you when you really hurt me." She gave him her cool hand and, holding it, he half asked, half told her, "That's a promise."
"Yes. Good-night."
Slowly she walked through the dark hall, hesitated at the schoolroom door and opened it.
"I've come back," she said, and disappeared before Rupert could reply, for she was afraid he would make some allusion to the tinker.