"As you like Tomonly mind they don't coop you up. To my mind, there is not a man in the parish safe;but things will not always go on so. Now, good father, we must be gone."She was afraid of Reuben, she fled before him like a poor little lamb, trembling and bleatingand yet she would sometimes long for the inevitable day when he would grasp her and fling her across his shoulders.They went up together to the huge low-raftered bedroom, which struck horribly cold.Then two days before the end he came. As she was[Pg 304] standing by the barn door he appeared at the horse-pond, and crossed over to her at once. He had seen that she was waiting for himperhaps he had seen it on half a dozen other occasions when she had not seen him.His meditations were soon disturbed by a confused distant noisethen men's voices and the tread of feet, and instantly the latch of the door was raised, the slight fastening gave way, and the intruders rushed into the room beneath.