“I thought so. But ’tis too bad a night for that. The rain falls very heavy, and the wind has risen.”

The wind? True. It was blowing hard. Hark to the thundering in the chimney, and the surging noise! To have been out in such a wind, and not to have known it was blowing!

“I have been here once before, today, Stephen. Landlady came round for me at dinnertime. There was someone here that needed looking to, she said. And ’deed she was right. All wandering and lost, Stephen. Wounded too, and bruised.”

He slowly moved to a chair and sat down, drooping his head before her.

“I came to do what little I could, Stephen; first, for that she worked with me when we were girls both, and for that you courted her and married her when I was her friend⁠—”

He laid his furrowed forehead on his hand, with a low groan.