Then suitors had come--the soldier from Shipley Wood, the lord of Axwood Manor, and others, and, in a way, a new sense was born in her, though she was alive to the fact that the fifteen thousand pounds inherited from her Uncle Benn had served to warm the air about her into a wider circle.

Yet it was neither to soldier, nor squire, nor civil engineer, nor surgeon that the new sense stirring in her was due.

The spring was too far beneath to be found by them.
When, at last, she raised her head, Lord Eglington was in the path, looking at her with a half-smile.

She did not start, but her face turned white, and a mist came before her eyes.
Quickly, however, as though fearful lest he should think he could trouble her composure, she laid a hand upon herself.
He came near to her and held out his hand.

"It has been a long six months since we met here," he said.
She made no motion to take his hand.