"I think it is the load I have to carry I fear the most." For the moment Maud Barrington had flung off the bonds of conventionality.

"Lance," she said, "you have proved your right to stay at Silverdale, and would not what you are doing now cover a great deal in the past ?" Winston smiled wryly.

"It is the present that is difficult," he said.
"Can a man be pardoned and retain the offense ?" He saw the faint bewilderment in the girl's face give place to the resentment of frankness unreturned and with a little shake of his shoulders shrank into himself.

Maud Barrington, who understood it, once more put on the becoming reticence of Silverdale.
"We are getting beyond our depth, and it is very hot," she said.

"You have all this hay to cut!" Winston laughed as he bent over the mower's knife.