She accepted,
therefore, Tom's renewed offer of his company.
They were just leaving the hall, when a thought came to Letty:
the moon suddenly appearing above the horizon had put it in her
head.
"Oh," she cried, "I know quite a short way home!" and, without
waiting any response from her companion, she turned, and led him
in an opposite direction, round, namely, by the back of the
court, into a field. There she made for a huge oak, which gloomed
in the moonlight by the sunk fence parting the grounds. In the
slow strength of its growth, by the rounding of its bole, and the
spreading of its roots, it had so rent and crumbled the wall as
to make through it a little ravine, leading to the top of the ha-
ha. When they reached it, before even Tom saw it, Letty turned
from him, and was up in a moment. At the top she turned to bid
him good night, but there he was, close behind her, insisting on
seeing her safe to the house.
"Is this the way you always come?" asked Tom.
"I never was on Durnmelling land before," answered Letty.
"How did you find the short-cut, then?" he asked. "It certainly
does not look as if it were much used."
"Of course not," replied Letty. "There is no communication
between Durnmelling and Thornwick now. It was all ours once,
though, Cousin Godfrey says. Did you notice how the great oak
sends its biggest arm over our field?"
"Yes.
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