“What have you seen then?”

“I’ve seen a very good-looking young man by the name of Raymond Ironsyde wasting a deuce of a lot of his time by your spinning frame; and wasting your time, too.”

Sabina changed colour.

“Fancy you saying that!” she exclaimed.  “He’s got to learn the business—­the practical side, Sally.  And he wants to master it carefully and grasp the whole thing.”

Miss Groves smiled.

“Ah.  He didn’t take long mastering the carder,” she said.  “Just two minutes was all he gave me, and I don’t think he was very long at the drawing heads neither; and I ain’t heard Sarah Northover say he spent much of his time at the spreader.  It all depends on the minder whether Mister Raymond wants to know much about the work!”

“But the spinning is the hardest to understand, Sally.”

“Granted, but he don’t ask many questions of Alice Chick or Nancy Buckler, do he?  I’m not blaming him, Lord knows, nor yet you, but for friendship I’m whispering to you to be sensible.  He’s a very kind-hearted young gentleman, and if he had a memory as big as his promises, he’d soon ruin himself.  But, like a lot of other nice chaps full of generous ideas, he forgets ’em when the accident that woke ’em is out of his mind.  And all I say, Sabina, is to be careful.  He may be as good as gold, and I dare say he is, but he’s gone on you—­head over heels—­he can’t hide it.  He don’t even try to.  And he’s a gentleman and you’re a spinner.  So don’t you be silly, and don’t think the worse of me for speaking.”

Sabina entertained the opinions concerning middle-age common to youth, but she was fond of Sally and set her heart at rest.

“You needn’t be frightened,” she answered.  “He’s a gentleman, as you say; and you know I’m not the sort to be a fool.  I can’t help him coming; and I can’t be rude to the young man.  For that matter I wouldn’t.  I won’t forget what you’ve said all the same.”

She hurried away and started her machine; but while her mind concentrated on spinning, some subconscious instincts worked at another matter and she found that Sally had cast a cloud upon a coming event which promised nothing but sunshine.

She had agreed to go for a walk with Raymond Ironsyde on the following Sunday, and he had named their meeting-place:  a bridge that crossed the Bride in the vale two miles from the village.  She meant to go, for the understanding between her and Raymond had advanced far beyond any point dreamed of by Sally Groves.  Sabina’s mind was in fact exceedingly full of Raymond, and his mind was full of her.  Temperament had conspired to this state of things, for while the youth found himself in love for the first time in his life, and pursued the quest with that ardour and enthusiasm until now reserved for sport, Sabina, who had otherwise been much more cautious, was not only in love, but actually felt that shadowy ambitions from the past