As she came to the gate at the lower end of the lane a man who was leaning over it started , with a quick intake of his breath , which , in any other man than Romney Penhallow , or for any other woman than Lucinda Penhallow , would have been an exclamation of surprise . Lucinda recognized him with a great deal of annoyance and a little relief . She would not have to walk home alone . But with Romney Penhallow ! Would he think she had contrived it so purposely ? Romney silently opened the gate for her , silently latched it behind her , and silently fell into step beside her . Down across a velvety sweep of field they went ; the air was frosty , calm and still ; over the world lay a haze of moonshine and mist that converted East Grafton 's prosaic hills and fields into a shimmering fairyland . At first Lucinda felt angrier than ever . What a ridiculous situation ! How the Penhallows would laugh over it ! As for Romney , he , too , was angry with the trick impish chance had played him . He liked being the butt of an awkward situation as little as most men ; and certainly to be obliged to walk home over moonlit fields at one o'clock in the morning with the woman he had loved and never spoken to for fifteen years was the irony of fate with a vengeance . Would she think he had schemed for it ? And how the deuce did she come to be walking home from the wedding at all ? By the time they had crossed the field and reached the wild cherry lane beyond it , Lucinda 's anger was mastered by her saving sense of humour . She was even smiling a little maliciously under her fascinator . The lane was a place of enchantment -- a long , moonlit colonnade adown which beguiling wood nymphs might have footed it featly . The moonshine fell through the arching boughs and made a mosaic of silver light and clear-cut shadow for the unfriendly lovers to walk in . On either side was the hovering gloom of the woods , and around them was a great silence unstirred by wind or murmur . Midway in the lane Lucinda was attacked by a sentimental recollection .
She thought of the last time Romney and she had walked home together through this very lane , XXXXX a party at `` young '' John 's .
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