But they started asunder with beating hearts:  something had fallen on the ground with a rattling noise; it was Hetty’s basket; all her little workwoman’s matters were scattered on the path, some of them showing a capability of rolling to great lengths.  There was much to be done in picking up, and not a word was spoken; but when Arthur hung the basket over her arm again, the poor child felt a strange difference in his look and manner.  He just pressed her hand, and said, with a look and tone that were almost chilling to her, “I have been hindering you; I must not keep you any longer now.  You will be expected at the house.  Good-bye.”

Without waiting for her to speak, he turned away from her and hurried back towards the road that led to the Hermitage, leaving Hetty to pursue her way in a strange dream that seemed to have begun in bewildering delight and was now passing into contrarieties and sadness.  Would he meet her again as she came home?  Why had he spoken almost as if he were displeased with her?  And then run away so suddenly?  She cried, hardly knowing why.

Arthur too was very uneasy, but his feelings were lit up for him by a more distinct consciousness.  He hurried to the Hermitage, which stood in the heart of the wood, unlocked the door with a hasty wrench, slammed it after him, pitched Zeluco into the most distant corner, and thrusting his right hand into his pocket, first walked four or five times up and down the scanty length of the little room, and then seated himself on the ottoman in an uncomfortable stiff way, as we often do when we wish not to abandon ourselves to feeling.

He was getting in love with Hetty—­that was quite plain.  He was ready to pitch everything else—­no matter where—­for the sake of surrendering himself to this delicious feeling which had just disclosed itself.  It was no use blinking the fact now—­they would get too fond of each other, if he went on taking notice of her—­and what would come of it?  He should have to go away in a few weeks, and the poor little thing would be miserable.  He must not see her alone again; he must keep out of her way.  What a fool he was for coming back from Gawaine’s!

He got up and threw open the windows, to let in the soft breath of the afternoon, and the healthy scent of the firs that made a belt round the Hermitage.  The soft air did not help his resolution, as he leaned out and looked into the leafy distance.  But he considered his resolution sufficiently fixed:  there was no need to debate with himself any longer.  He had made up his mind not to meet Hetty again; and now he might give himself up to thinking how immensely agreeable it would be if circumstances were different—­how pleasant it would have been to meet her this evening as she came back, and put his arm round her again and look into her sweet face.  He wondered if the dear little thing were thinking of him too—­twenty to one she was.  How beautiful her eyes were with the tear on their lashes!  He would like to satisfy his soul for a day with looking at them, and he must see her again—­he must see her, simply to remove any false impression from her mind about his manner to her just now.  He would behave in a quiet, kind way to her—­just to prevent her from going home with her head full of wrong fancies.  Yes, that would be the best thing to do after all.