"I came from there."
"Oh! And is that—so mighty big?"
"Not so big as the whole North. Though some still think it is."
"Did you ever hear——" Cynthia paused and clasped her hands together; "of a—a boy named Sandy Morley? He went from here to there—long ago?"
It was a wild question, but the day was so haunted by Sandy that the words came of their own volition.
"I've met him; yes, I know him slightly."
The colour rose and faded in Cynthia's face and her breath came quick and hard.
"Oh! tell me about him. He came from this—Hollow! He went away years and years ago. Tell me—what has he become?"
Yearning, curiosity and honest interest marked the words, but the face of the girl was a child's face, not a woman's. "He must be a right big boy now!"
The man standing in The Way could not repress a smile. He saw that Cynthia Walden had in fancy enshrined the boy Sandy, but would she welcome the man Sandy had become? Fearfully, dreading the test that must be made, he drew nearer, and with lowered eyes bowed, and said: