Suddenly:—­a little figure on the opposite bank, and a child’s cry.

Helena sprang to her feet in dismay.  She saw the landlord’s small son, a child of five, who had evidently lost his footing on the green bank above the crag which faced her, and was sliding down, unable to help himself, towards the point where nothing could prevent his falling headlong into the stream below.  The bank, however, was not wholly bare.  There were some thin gnarled oaks upon it, which might stop him.

“Catch hold of the trees, Bobby!” she shouted to him, in an agony.

The child heard, turned a white face to her, and tried to obey.  He was already a stalwart little mountaineer, accustomed to trot over the fells after his father’s sheep, and the physical instinct in his, sturdy limbs saved him.  He caught a jutting root, held on, and gradually dragged himself up to the cushion of moss from which the tree grew, sitting astride the root, and clasping the tree with both arms.  The position was still extremely dangerous, but for the moment he was saved.

“All right, Bobby—­clever boy!  Hold tight—­I’m coming!”

And she rushed towards a little bridge at the head of the ravine.  But before she could reach it, she saw the lad’s father, cautiously descending the bank, helped by a rope tied to an oak tree at the top.  He reached the child, tied the rope to the stem of the tree where the little fellow was sitting, and then with the boy under one arm and hauling on the rope with the other hand, he made his way up the few perilous yards that divided them from safety.  At the top he relieved his parental feelings by a good deal of smacking and scolding.  For Bobby was a notorious “limb,” the terror of his mother and the inn generally.  He roared vociferously under the smacking.  But when Helena arrived on the scene, he stopped at once, and put out a slim red tongue at her.  Helena laughed, congratulated the father on his skill, and returned to her seat.

“That’s a parable of me!” she thought, as she sat with her elbows on her knees, staring at the bank opposite.

“I very nearly slipped in!—­like Bobby—­but not quite.  I’m sound—­though bruised.  No desperate harm done.”  She drew a long breath—­laughing to herself—­though her eyes were rather wet.  “Well, now, then—­what am I going to do?  I’m not going into a convent.  I don’t think I’m even going to college.  I’m going to take my guardian’s advice.  ’Marry—­my dear child—­and bring up children.’  ’Marry?’—­Very well!”—­she sprang to her feet—­“I shall marry!—­that’s settled.  As to the children—­that remains to be seen!”

And with her hands behind her, she paced the little path, in a strange excitement and exaltation.  Presently from the tower of the little church, half a mile down the river, a bell began to strike the hour.  “Six o’clock!—­Peter will be here directly.  Now, he’s got to be lectured—­for his good.  I’m tired of lecturing myself.  It’s somebody else’s turn—­”