 when I saw
the way you took, I kept you in sight and came down the bank, behind there. I
hope you will not be displeased with me.«
    »No,« said Maggie, with simple seriousness, walking on, as if she meant
Philip to accompany her, »I'm very glad you came, for I wished very much to have
an opportunity of speaking to you. I've never forgotten how good you were long
ago to Tom, and me too; but I was not sure that you would remember us so well.
Tom and I have had a great deal of trouble since then, and I think that makes
one think more of what happened before the trouble came.«
    »I can't believe that you have thought of me so much as I have thought of
you,« said Philip, timidly. »Do you know, when I was away, I made a picture of
you as you looked that morning in the study when you said you would not forget
me.«
    Philip drew a large miniature-case from his pocket, and opened it. Maggie
saw her old self leaning on a table, with her black locks hanging down behind
her ears, looking into space with strange, dreamy eyes. It was a water-colour
sketch, of real merit as a portrait.
    »O dear,« said Maggie, smiling, and flushed with pleasure, »what a queer
little girl I was! I remember myself with my hair in that way, in that pink
frock. I really was like a gypsy. I daresay I am now,« she added, after a little
pause; »am I like what you expected me to be?«
    The words might have been those of a coquette, but the full bright glance
Maggie turned on Philip was not that of a coquette. She really did hope he liked
her face as it was now, but it was simply the rising again of her innate delight
in admiration and love. Philip met her eyes and looked at her in silence for a
long moment, before he said, quietly, »No, Maggie.«
    The light died out a little from Maggie's face, and there was a slight
trembling of the lip. Her eyelids fell lower, but she did not turn away her
head, and Philip continued to look at her. Then he said, slowly -
    »You are very much more beautiful than I thought you would be.«
    »Am I?« said Maggie, the pleasure returning in a deeper flush. She turned
her face
