202 GARRYOWEN 



The linnets in the trees must have heard the 

 raised voices; the humans were quarrelHng in 

 good earnest; then, no doubt, seeing the young 

 man seize the young woman, they flew away 

 thinking tragedy had arrived on the old Roman 

 road with all her pomp and circumstance. 



For a moment the astonished girl had a vision of 

 being hauled over the bridge to drown in the 

 six-inch river, and then she lost consciousness 

 to everything but the embrace of the man who 

 had seized her in his arms. Lips, eyes and 

 mouth covered with burning kisses, she leaned 

 against the parapet gasping for breath and — 

 alone. 



Mr Dashwood had gone; vaulting over the 

 low fence of the wood, he had vanished amidst 

 the trees. No criminal ever escaped quicker after 

 the commission of his crime. 



" Mad! Oh, he's mad! " she gasped, haK laugh- 

 ing, gasping, and not far from tears. It was not 

 the outburst of fervent passion that astonished 

 or shocked her. It was the running away. 



The deep throb of a motor-car topping the 

 hill brought her to her senses, and she had com- 

 posed herself and was leaning on the parapet 

 again, looking at the river as it passed by. 



Then she took her way back to The Martens, 

 walking slowly and thinking the situation over 

 as she walked. 



