Ashurst shook his head.

“We kept it for you, but I suppose you was too busy in your brain to think o’ such a thing as that?”

Was she mocking him, in that voice of hers, which still kept some Welsh crispness against the invading burr of the West Country?  If she knew!  And at that moment he thought:  ’No, no; I’ll clear out.  I won’t put myself in such a beastly false position.’

But, after breakfast, the longing to see Megan began and increased with every minute, together with fear lest something should have been said to her which had spoiled everything.  Sinister that she had not appeared, not given him even a glimpse of her!  And the love poem, whose manufacture had been so important and absorbing yesterday afternoon under the apple trees, now seemed so paltry that he tore it up and rolled it into pipe spills.  What had he known of love, till she seized his hand and kissed it!  And now—­what did he not know?  But to write of it seemed mere insipidity!  He went up to his bedroom to get a book, and his heart began to beat violently, for she was in there making the bed.  He stood in the doorway watching; and suddenly, with turbulent joy, he saw her stoop and kiss his pillow, just at the hollow made by his head last night.

How let her know he had seen that pretty act of devotion?  And yet, if she heard him stealing away, it would be even worse.  She took the pillow up, holding it as if reluctant to shake out the impress of his cheek, dropped it, and turned round.

“Megan!”

She put her hands up to her cheeks, but her eyes seemed to look right into him.  He had never before realised the depth and purity and touching faithfulness in those dew-bright eyes, and he stammered: 

“It was sweet of you to wait up for me last night.”

She still said nothing, and he stammered on: 

“I was wandering about on the moor; it was such a jolly night.  I—­I’ve just come up for a book.”

Then, the kiss he had seen her give the pillow afflicted him with sudden headiness, and he went up to her.  Touching her eyes with his lips, he thought with queer excitement:  ’I’ve done it!  Yesterday all was sudden—­anyhow; but now—­I’ve done it!’ The girl let her forehead rest against his lips, which moved downwards till they reached hers.  That first real lover’s kiss-strange, wonderful, still almost innocent—­in which heart did it make the most disturbance?

“Come to the big apple tree to-night, after they’ve gone to bed.  Megan-promise!”

She whispered back:  “I promise.”