But it was in that footfall, for which she had been waiting, that the origin of Car'line's involuntary springing lay.

The pedestrian was Mop Ollamoor, as the girl well knew; but his business that way was not to visit her; he sought another woman whom he spoke of as his Intended, and who lived at Moreford, two miles farther on.

On one, and only one, occasion did it happen that Car'line could not control her utterance; it was when her sister alone chanced to be present.

'Oh--oh--oh--!' she cried.

'He's going to _her_, and not coming to _me_!' To do the fiddler justice he had not at first thought greatly of, or spoken much to, this girl of impressionable mould.