Her surprise at his appearance was so great that, far from making a calm and independent descent, she was very nearly lifted down in his arms.

He relinquished her when she touched ground, and hoped she was not frightened.
"Oh no, not much," she managed to say.

"There was no danger--unless he had run under the trees where the boughs are low enough to hit my head." "Which was by no means an impossibility, and justifies any amount of alarm." He referred to what he thought he saw written in her face, and she could not tell him that this had little to do with the horse, but much with himself.

His contiguity had, in fact, the same effect upon her as on those former occasions when he had come closer to her than usual--that of producing in her an unaccountable tendency to tearfulness.

Melbury soon put the horse to rights, and seeing that Grace was safe, turned again to the work-people.