Miss Melbury, having gone forward quite in the rear of the rest, was one of the first to return, and the excitement being contagious, she ran laughing towards Marty, who still stood as a hand-post to guide her; then, passing on, she flew round the fatal bush where the undergrowth narrowed to a gorge.

Marty arrived at her heels just in time to see the result.

Fitzpiers had quickly stepped forward in front of Winterborne, who, disdaining to shift his position, had turned on his heel, and then the surgeon did what he would not have thought of doing but for Mrs.Melbury's encouragement and the sentiment of an eve which effaced conventionality.

Stretching out his arms as the white figure burst upon him, he captured her in a moment, as if she had been a bird.
"Oh!" cried Grace, in her fright.
"You are in my arms, dearest," said Fitzpiers, "and I am going to claim you, and keep you there all our two lives!" She rested on him like one utterly mastered, and it was several seconds before she recovered from this helplessness.

Subdued screams and struggles, audible from neighboring brakes, revealed that there had been other lurkers thereabout for a similar purpose.