“Found!” interrupted a well-known voice; and at the same moment Edward Lynne shook a shower of perfumed hawthorn blossoms from the scattered hedge which he struggled through; and repeating “Found!” in his full echoing voice, stood panting before the startled girls.  “I have had such a hunt!” he exclaimed joyfully—­“such a hunt for you, Helen!  I have been over Woodland brook, and up as far as Fairmill, where you said you would be—­oh, you truant!  And I doubt if I should have caught you at last, but for poor Dash”—­and the sagacious dog sprung about, as if conscious that he deserved a large portion of the praise.  Rose was astonished at the perfect self-possession with which, after the first flush of surprise, Helen received her lover.  Nor was poor Rose unconscious that she herself occupied no portion of his attention beyond the glance of recognition which he cast while throwing himself on the sward at Helen’s feet.

“We must go home,” said the triumphant beauty, after hearing a few of those half-whispered nothings which are considered of such importance in a lover’s calendar; “the dew is falling, and I may catch cold.”

“The dew falling!” repeated Edward.—­“Why, look, the sky is still golden from the sun’s rays; do not—­do not, dearest Helen, go home yet.  Besides,” he added, “your grandmother has plenty of employment; there is Mrs. Howard’s companion, and one or two strangers from the hall, at your cottage—­so she is not at all lonesome.”

“Who did you say?” inquired Helen, eagerly, now really losing her self-command.

“Oh, some of Mrs. Howard’s fine friends.  I never,” he continued, “see those sort of people in an humble village, without thinking of the story of the agitation of all the little hedgerow birds, when they first saw a paroquet amongst them, and began longing for his gay feathers.  Do not go, dear Helen—­they will soon be gone; and I do so want you to walk as far as Fairmill Lawn.  I have planted with my own hands this morning the silver firs you said you admired, just where the bank juts over the stream.  Do come.”

“Rose will go, and tell me all about it, but I must get home.  Granny cannot do without me; besides, Mrs. Howard is so kind to me, that I cannot suffer her friends to be neglected.  Nay, Edward, you may look as you please, but I certainly shall go.”  Edward Lynne remonstrated, implored, and, finally, flew into a passion.  At any other time Helen’s proud spirit would have risen so as to meet this outburst of temper with one to the full as violent; but the knowledge of what had grown to maturity in her own mind, and the presence of Rose, restrained her, and she continued to walk home without reply.