But he had to go to the waterfall with Mabel.  Lady Mabel was always dressed perfectly,—­having great gifts of her own in that direction.  There was a freshness about her which made her morning costume more charming than that of evening, and never did she look so well as when arrayed for a walk.  On this occasion she had certainly done her best.  But he, poor blind idiot, saw nothing of this.  The white gauzy fabric which had covered Isabel’s satin petticoat on the previous evening still filled his eyes.  Those perfect boots, the little glimpses of party-coloured stockings above them, the looped-up skirt, the jacket fitting but never binding that lovely body and waist, the jaunty hat with its small fresh feathers, all were nothing to him.  Nor was the bright honest face beneath the hat anything to him now;—­for it was an honest face, though misfortunes which had come had somewhat marred the honesty of the heart.

At first the conversation was about indifferent things,—­ Killancodlem and Mrs Jones, Crummie-Toddie and Reginald Dobbs.  They had gone along the high-road as far as the post-office, and had turned through the wood and reached a seat whence there was a beautiful view down upon the Archay before a word was said affecting either Miss Boncassen or the ring.  ’You got the ring safe,’ she said.

‘Oh yes.’

‘How could you be so foolish as to risk it?’

‘I did not regard it as mine.  You had accepted it,—­I thought.’

’But if I had, and then repented of my fault in doing so, should you not have been willing to help me in setting myself right with myself?  Of course after what had passed, it was a trouble to me when it came. what was I to do? for a day or two I thought I would take it, not as liking to take it, but as getting rid of the trouble in that way.  Then I remembered its value, its history, the fact that all who knew you would want to know what had become of it,—­and I felt that it should be given back.  There is only one person to whom we must give it.’

‘Who is that?’ he said quickly.

’Your wife;—­or to her who is to become your wife.  No other woman can be justified in accepting such a present.’

‘There has been a great deal more said about it than it’s worth,’ said he, not anxious at the present moment to discuss any matrimonial projects with her.  ‘Shall we go to the Fall?’ Then she got up and led the way till they came to the little bridge from which they could see the Falls of the Codlem below them.  ’I call that very pretty,’ he said.

‘I thought you would like it.’

’I never saw anything of that kind more jolly.  Do you care for scenery, Mabel?’

’Very much.  I know no pleasure equal to it.  You have never seen Grex?’

‘Is it like this?’

’Not in the least.  It is wilder than this, and there are not so many trees; but to my eye it is very beautiful.  I wish you had seen it.’