She took it off stealthily, and laid it on the moss at her feet. Then she took a bracelet—his gift also—from her arm. Then she drew off her engagement ring of diamonds and emeralds, and added it to the glittering heap. If only she could remove those other bonds as easily! And all the time she hated herself for the wish.
Mechanically she stooped down, and, taking the water in her hand, drank of it. She wished she might forget what had happened here, and the poisoned sweetness of glances and words during those months of last winter.
"I must forget—I must forget," she wailed, half aloud. "It lasted such a little while. There was no time for it to take hold upon my life."
And then her hands fell to her side, for there was a quick step beside her, and, turning, she saw Anthony Trevithick.
CHAPTER XV.
THE WOOD OF STRANGE MEETINGS.
"Pamela!"
He had come back, and his eyes and his voice were full of fire.
"Pamela! What have you done to yourself, my sweetheart? You are not the Pamela I left."
She had turned towards him as irresistibly as the needle to the pole. But at his words a quick shiver ran through her. Her eyes turned from him and darkened. Her head drooped.