"Better wait until to-morrow," suggested Edwards. "The wind's 'owling through the trees, and it's colder than the Harctic regions. Better wait."
"I can not. The locket was a present, and I value it exceedingly. I thought of asking you to accompany me, but as it is so cold perhaps you had better not."
"Oh, I'll go with pleasure!" said Mr. Edwards. "If you can stand the cold, I can, I dessay. Wait till I get my 'at and hovercoat—I won't be a minute."
Miss Silver waited. Mr. Edwards reappeared in a twinkling.
"'Adn't I better fetch a lantern?" he suggested. "It will be himpossible to see it, heven if it should be there."
"No," said Sybilla. "The moon is shining, and the locket will glimmer on the snow. Come!"
She took his arm, and they started at a brisk pace for the Beech Walk. The ground, baked hard as iron, rang under their tread, and whether it was the bitter blast or not, Mr. Edwards could not tell, but his companion's face was flushed with a more brilliant glow, in the ghostly moonlight, than he had ever before seen there.
They reached the long grove of magnificent copper-beeches, and just without its entrance Miss Silver began searching for her lost locket.
"It is not here," said Sybilla. "Let us go further down——"
She paused at a sudden gesture of her companion.