“I am glad you have come, Miss Eustacia,” he said, with a sigh of relief. “I don't like biding by myself.”
“Nonsense. I have only been a little way for a walk. I have been gone only twenty minutes.”
“It seemed long,” murmured the sad boy. “And you have been so many times.”
“Why, I thought you would be pleased to have a bonfire. Are you not much obliged to me for making you one?”
“Yes; but there's nobody here to play wi' me.”
“I suppose nobody has come while I've been away?”
“Nobody except your grandfather—he looked out of doors once for 'ee. I told him you were walking round upon the hill to look at the other bonfires.”
“A good boy.”
“I think I hear him coming again, miss.”
An old man came into the remoter light of the fire from the direction of the homestead. He was the same who
