keep you very quiet."
"Not until you tell me now—this moment—what I ask you. You went to the mill to try to help Frale out of his trouble. Cassandra, have you loved that boy?"
Her face assumed its old look of masklike impassivity. "I reckoned he might hold himself steady and do right—would they only leave him be—and give him the chance—"
"Cassandra, answer me. Was it for love of him that you gave him your promise?"
Her face grew white, and for a moment she bowed her head on his hand.
"Please, Doctor Thryng, let me tell you the strange part first, then you can answer that question in your own way." She lifted her head and looked steadily in his eyes. "You remember that day we went to Cate Irwin's? When we came to the place where we can see far—far over the mountains—I laughed—with something glad in my heart. It was the same this time when I got to that far open place. All at once it seemed like I was so free—free from the heavy burden—and all in a kind of light that was only the same gladness in my heart.
"I stopped there and waited and thought how you said that time, 'It's good just to be alive,' and I thought if you were there with me and should put your hand on my bridle as