Page:Following darkness (IA followingdarknes00reid).pdf/319

 "I certainly won't," I answered sullenly. " What does it matter to you whether I do or not?"

I felt her lips touch my cheek. Her face was wet and cold with the rain. I put my arms round her very gently, and kissed her hair and her cheek, but no more than that, for I knew her own embrace had been given merely to console me, and because it was for the last time. Her dark eyes caressed me, and she smiled a little. She laid her hand on my shoulder, "Will you walk back to the house with me now, Peter? You are not angry with me?"

"No," I answered.

"I can't stay any longer, because mamma knows I came out, and she will suspect it was to meet you. She is not so bad about it as she was when she first arrived. I managed to convince her that she had been alarming herself unnecessarily."

"Very unnecessarily," I thought, but I said nothing.

I walked back with her, and then on down the drive and home.