"Where are you going so fast, Robert? Are you walking for a wager? I have been vainly trying to come up with you for the last five minutes," said Amy, taking his arm.
"Have you been out walking without Bertie?" he said.
"Yes, I meant to have gone with you; and ran upstairs for my hat, when I saw you preparing to go out."
"I was too late; when I came back you had disappeared, Miss Strickland said down the long avenue: so I followed, and went through the village, and home by the lane, but somehow I missed you."
"Miss Strickland was wrong. I went across the fields into the wood, as far as Mrs. Grey's cottage. What a singular being she is!"
"Have you never seen her until to-day?"
"Yes, several times, but never to speak to. She must have been very handsome in her youth."
"What, with that dark frown on her brow?"
"That has been caused from sorrow," replied Robert, "she has had some heavy, bitter trial to bear; besides that frown is not always there, once I noticed quite a softened expression steal over her face. I feel an interest in the old lady; she tells me she is alone in the world,—like myself. I feel alone sometimes."