They were walking along a narrow avenue of tall limes which skirted the Beechcote lands, and took them past the house.

Above their heads the trees met in a brown-and-purple tracery of boughs, and on their right, through the branches, they saw a pale full moon, throning it in a silver sky.

The mild air, the movements of the birds, the scents from the earth and bushes spoke of spring; and suddenly Diana perceived the gate leading to the wood where that very morning the subtle message of the changing year had come upon her, rending and probing.

A longing to tell Marsham all her vague troubles rose in her, held back by a natural shrinking.

But the longing prevailed, quickened by the loyal sense that she must quickly tell him all she knew about herself and her history, since there was nobody else to tell him.
"Oliver!"-- she began, hurriedly--"I ought to tell you--I don't think you know.