"And are you content, Rule?"
"Infinitely."
"And happy?"
"Perfectly."
"Thank God! So am I. But why, oh, why when we met by the spring just now, why, when I was crazed with joy and fear at the sudden sight of you, why did you turn away and leave me?" she passionately demanded.
He looked at her serenely, incisively, and answered, calmly, quietly:
"Dear, because you shrank from me, threw your hands up before your eyes, as if to shut out the sight of me. Dear, your own sudden appearance before me at the spring, to which I had gone for my noonday draught of water, nearly overwhelmed me; but I readily recovered myself and understood it, connected it with the trail below, and concluded that you were on your way to Farthermost to join your brother, whom I had heard of as one of the officers of the new fort. Then, believing that my presence distressed you, I went away."
"Oh, Rule!"
After a little while Rothsay inquired:
"Was not that Mr. Clarence Rockharrt whom I saw with you by the spring?"