She came towards him with outstretched hand.
"How are you, Joel?" she asked.
"I'm well," he replied; "and you? But I needn't enquire—you look blooming."
Thus they crossed that difficult bridge of five years.
They walked on together, and he told her about his journey, and the life he had been living since they last met.
But soon there befell a pause.
Lucy found it disconcerting.
"I'm going up to Greystones to spend the day with great-granny," she said. "Barbara and Peter have both gone to the Shepherds' Meet in Girdlestone Pass. You remember it, don't you?"
"Peter and I have wrestled there many a time," he replied. "I think I'll go and look him up for the sake of old times."
They walked on in silence. Lucy wished that Joel would talk more. She half wished he would treat the love they had once had for each other as a forgotten dream. But, stealing a glance at him, she became aware of his rising emotion; she seemed to hear it like the filling of a well with water. It frightened her.