She said not a word, but, as she recognised him, a faint colour came
into the ivory pallor of her cheek and an expression of surprise in the
dark, fearless eyes.
Stafford raised his cap.
"I am very sorry!" he said. "I am afraid you must think me a great
nuisance; this is the second time I have been guilty of trespass."
She was silent for a moment, not with shyness, but as if she were
noticing the change in his dress, and wondering how he came to be in
evening-clothes, and where he had come from. The expression was one of
simple girlish curiosity, which softened in a delicious way the general
pride and hauteur of her face.
"You are not trespassing," she said, and the voice sounded very sweet
and musical after the din of the dogs. "There is public right of way
along this road."
"I am immensely relieved," said Stafford. "It looks so unfrequented,
that I was afraid it was private, and that I had made another blunder;
all the same, I am very sorry that I should have disturbed you and made
the dogs kick up such a row. I would have gone on or gone back if I had
known you were coming out; but the place looked so quiet--"
"It does not matter," she said; "they bark at the slightest noise, and
we are used to it. The place is so quiet because only my father and I
live here, and there are only a few servants, and the place is so big."
All this was said not repiningly, but softly and a little dreamily. By
this time Donald and Bess had recovered their tempers, and after a
close inspection of the intruder had come to the conclusion that he was
of the right sort, and Donald was sitting close on his launches beside
Stafford, and thrusting his nose against Stafford's hand invitingly.
The girl's beauty seemed to Stafford almost bewildering, and yet softly
and sweetly a part of the beauty of the night; he was conscious of a
fear, that was actually a dread, that she would bow, call the dogs and
leave him; so, before she could do so, he made haste to say: "Now I am here, will you allow me to apologise for my trespass of this
afternoon?"
She inclined her head slightly.
"It does not matter," she said; "you were very kind in helping me with
the lamb; and I ought to have told you that my father would be very
glad if you would fish in the Heron; you will find some better trout
higher up the valley."