‘For two years?  That is a long time.’

’Not at all, the circumstances considered.  Are you afraid of submitting your love to the test?’

’You asked me to trust you implicitly.  It is a great thing, you being my enemy to begin with.’

’Your enemy?  Well, then, your enemy; and still I ask you to trust me.  I have never yet betrayed man or woman, Walter.’

’Never; that I know well!  Forgive me.  On this day, this day of the month, two years hence, I may go to her?’

‘On this day of the month, two years hence.  Is it a bargain?’

‘I agree.  Thyrza could not be in safer keeping.’

He went on: 

’What a load you have lifted from me!  If that suspense had continued much longer, I don’t know how I should have borne it.  And you were with her in her illness?  Tell me about her.  Was she gravely ill?  Tell me where you found her.’

’No; it is needless.  I am a bad one to hear love confidences; I get impatient, and am apt to be satirical.  I shall never talk to you of Thyrza.’

‘But if she falls ill again, I must know.’

’I hope for better things.  Tell me just one thing, before we change the subject.  What is your opinion of her sister?  What do you really know of her?’

’I know nothing save what I have gathered from Thyrza’s talk, and from Grail’s.  I never saw her.  But there can be little doubt that she is of sterling character.’

’Well, let it be.  Now come in with me.  I suppose you have had no thought for such a foolish ceremony as dinner?’

Their voices passed into silence.  By this time it was dark, and the tall chestnuts beyond the house rustled in a cool breeze from the sea.  Thyrza did not move for several minutes; when at length she endeavoured to rise, her numbed limbs would scarcely sustain her.  She looked up and saw the yellow crescent of a young moon sailing in a sky of delicate pearl hue.

One glance at the upper windows of the house, and then, with strength which seemed to pass into her limbs from the sharp air, she set out for the cottage which was her present home.

CHAPTER XXIX

TOGETHER AGAIN

Lydia held desperately to hope through the days and the nights.  From all others Thyrza might hide away, but could she persist in cruelty to her sister?  Surely in some way a message, if only a message, would be delivered; at least there would come a word to relieve this unendurable suspense.  Every added day of silence was an added fear.

Unable to associate with acquaintances to whom Thyrza’s name had become an unfailing source of vulgar gossip, she changed her place of work.  Work had still to be done, be her heart ever so sore; the meals must be earned, though now they were eaten in solitude.  And she worked harder than ever, for it was her dread that at any moment she might hear of Thyrza in distress or danger, and she must have money laid by for such an emergency.  All means of inquiry were used, save that of going to the police-court and having the event made public through the newspapers.  Neither Lydia nor Gilbert could bear to do that, even after they felt assured that the child was somewhere wandering alone.