Carolan sped to her room, took her cloak, and hurrying down by a back staircase went swiftly to the shrubbery by the gate. In a very short time Kitty joined her.

"From here," said Kitty, "we can see the road, and we can hide ourselves from view very quickly. We are going to the woods, darling.

Put on your cloak. There! Put the hood right over your head. Now you might be anybody; so might I. See? It is only a little way to go along the road; then we shall cut across the field to the woods. That will be safer.”

"Mamma! What will happen if we are caught?”

"Terrible things!" said Kitty.

"We must not be caught." She added, with a fierceness which was alien to her nature: "Terrible things happened once to me; they shall not happen again. One day, my darling, I shall tell you in detail of the terrible thing that happened to me.”

"But, Mamma, today you are happy, are you not?”

"Happiness has come back, darling, as I never dreamed it could come back-to me.”

Kitty was breathless with the walk: she had put on a good deal of weight in recent years, and she was not given to exercise. She could not talk and hurry too, so she gripped Carolan's hot little hand and silently they went across the grass in the direction of the wood.

"Mamma," said Carolan, distressed by her mother's breathlessness, 'why did you not come in the carriage?”

"My dear," said Kitty almost sharply, 'how could I? Do you not understand that this is a secret? Did I not make that clear?”

"Oh, yes," said Carolan, and blushed at her own stupidity. They went on over the grass until they reached the wood. The first thing Carolan noticed was a saddled horse tied to a tree. It was very quiet in the wood; their footsteps crackled on the bracken; there was a tenseness everywhere; Carolan felt that % something very exciting was going to happen.

A man stepped out from behind the tree. Carolan had a blurred vision of a pair of grey eyes, of dark hair, of bronzed skin. He said: "Kitty!" and Mamma dropped Carolan's hand and ran to him, and he put his arms round Mamma, and she was crying and laughing on his chest.

Carolan stood uncertainly, waiting for them to notice her.

Kitty took the man's face in her hands and looked into it searchingly.

She said: "My darling, if only I had known that you would come back!”

He answered: "While there was breath in my body I would come back to you.”

"The years ..." said Kitty.

"The long years. Thirteen years, Darrell, and what could I have done!

I would have waited; I would have waited twenty years. But there was the child ...”

She remembered Carolan then, and stretched a hand to her.

The man said: "We could not help what happened to us, Kitty. The past was not in our hands, but the present is, and the future shall be!”

And Kitty was crying as she knelt down by Carolan.

"This is the child, Darrell. See, she has a look of you!”

He knelt down, so that they were both kneeling by Carolan.

"Darling," said Kitty, 'this is your father, my Carolan.”

Carolan studied him eagerly. She was too young to realize that suffering and hardship had put those marks on his face.

"Now," said Kitty, between laughter and tears, 'we are here together... the whole family... my family!”

The man touched Carolan's cheek gently with a rough finger.

"I like our daughter, Kitty," he said.

"Tonight then ..." said Kitty.

He shook his head.

"Not yet, my darling." He took the stuff of Carolan's cloak between his fingers and felt it, as though appraising its value.

"It will be hard at first, Kitty mine.”

"What do we care?" said Kitty.

"But for the child?”

Kitty said earnestly: "She is our child, Darrell.”

He stroked her cheek.

"We will send for her when we are ready.”

Carolan cried shrilly: "Mamma! Mamma, you are going away with__with my father.”

"Hush, darling," said Kitty, 'you said you would keep a secret.”

Darrell Grey took Carolan's hand, and smiled down at the small fingers.

"Did you tell her," he asked, 'did you tell her how we met here in this very wood and how we made our plans? Did you tell her how I went to Exeter and never came back till now?”

His face hardened into lines that were almost cruel, when he said that, and Carolan knew now that terrible things had happened to him as well as to her mother.

"I have told her something of this." said Kitty.

"Carolan," he said, "I will tell you something. It is a cruel thing to be poor in this world, for if you are poor you are helpless ... and it is a cruel world'Carolan... a cruel world to be helpless in. Carolan... my daughter... have you ever seen the lame duck in a farmyard? Have you ever seen how its strong companions savage it to death because of its weakness? A poor man is a lame duck, daughter. That is why I would not take you to poverty.”

He frightened her; he spoke with such feeling; but his dark face and the adventure in his eyes fascinated her. Besides, he was her father.

"You will be brave, Carolan, I know," he said.

"You have bravery written on your brow. Listen, I am going to take your mother away...”

"But, darling," put in Kitty, "you shall join us. Shall she not, Darrell? As soon as possible she shall join us.”

"As soon as possible she shall join us. You understand, Carolan? I am a broken man. Once I had dreams of a future that would be good. Now I start again. I am not so young, but then I am not so old. I have much to work for though. It will be good to have my family around me.”

"Tonight," said Kitty, "your father and I will leave for London. Until we are well on our way, no one must know. You understand that, Carolan?" Carolan nodded.

"So you tell no one, eh?”

"I will tell no one.”

"It will be all right," said Kitty, "because no one shall know I have gone, till morning; then I shall be far away. Carolan, I am going to ride away on that horse with your father; not by coach, darling." She shivered.

"Was it not because your father went to Exeter to book for the coach that our lives lay in ruins about us! Now we are going to build a fresh life for ourselves on those ruins, Carolan, and you are ours, and you shall be with us. You will come to us, darling, as soon as we are ready?" Carolan nodded.

"I shall send a letter to the housekeeper who is a good friend of mine, and in it will be a letter for you, Carolan. It will tell you what you must do. On no account let the squire know; he is vindictive, that man. Ah, what I have suffered these last years ,.. while I waited, waited for the return of my love!”

Carolan thought fleetingly of her mother's lying back on her couch, with the black boy, Sambo, feeding her with sweetmeats, and Therese discussing what dress she would wear, she thought of the tales of the lovers she had had. But this picture did not stay long in Carolan's mind; she was now believing with her mother that there had been thirteen years of waiting and suffering.

Kitty looked about her.

"It would never do for us to be seen, Darrell," she said.

"Oh, my darling, I could not bear that anything should go wrong for us again.”

"No," said Darrell, 'it must not! Go now, Kitty. And tonight, an hour before midnight, you will be here at this spot?”

"An hour before midnight," she repeated. They kissed. Carolan stood bewildered, watching. Then it was her turn to be kissed. Darrell lifted her and looked into her face.

"It is not goodbye, little daughter. I shall see you soon. Soon we shall send for you, and then we shall be together, one happy 'family, eh?”

Carolan nodded, received his kiss, and was put down. Kitty took her hand and led her away; they kept glancing over their shoulders, and Carolan's father stood there watching them.

"Now, Carolan, you know!" said Kitty.

"And you see how I trust you?”

Carolan said with dignity: "Of course you can trust me. Mamma! Did he not say that we were one family?”

Kitty pressed her daughter's hand.

"Dearest Carolan, all through the long years you have been my comfort, my only comfort.”

Tears filled Carolan's eyes: it was rather wonderful to have been Mamma's comfort through all the years.

"And very soon we shall be together in our lovely London home, darling.

That will be wonderful, eh, Carolan?”

"Yes, Mamma.”

"Oh, darling, how glad I am that I decided to trust you and let you meet your father!”

"I am glad too," said Carolan.

When they reached the shrubbery, Kitty said: "Let us take off our cloaks now, darling; it would look odd for us to be walking in the grounds, clad in them in such heat, would it not?”

They took them off; while they were doing so. the squire came upon them. Kitty pressed Carolan's hand to warn her of his approach, and Carolan looked over her shoulder guiltily.

"Ah!" said the squire.

"So my lady wife is taking a walk with her daughter, eh?”

Kitty's heart was fluttering uneasily under her blue silk dress; Carolan looked at the ground.

"Is there any reason why I should not?" asked Kitty.

"No reason at all," said the squire.

"I merely remark on the fact because it is so unusual. I believe it is not often with your daughter that you amuse yourself?”

There was an insinuation in his voice which brought a flush to Kitty's face. She lived fully in the moment as it came along; she had just been with Darrell, and she was believing that for thirteen years she had waited for him, submitting only to the necessary embraces of the squire. It was unpleasant therefore to have that picture of herself wiped out so crudely, and another picture held up for her to see. The others? They had not really counted. She was just affectionate, eager to please, unable to deny; and the poor boys had needed her so badly.