"Rather not! Given us up long ago. It must be getting on for an hour.
I can't think how I came to forget--"
Margot glanced at him shyly beneath her curling lashes.
"It was the fish! A fisherman can't be expected to remember anything
when he is landing a trout!" she suggested soothingly. Nevertheless she
remembered with a thrill of joy that his forgetfulness had dated back to
a time when there had been no fish in prospect. "Do you suppose they
have gone home?"
"We will go and see. From that mound over there we can overlook the
path to the inn. Perhaps we had better keep a little in the background!
It would be as well that they should not see us, if they happened to
look up--"
If it were possible to feel a degree hotter, Margot felt it at that
moment, as she followed George Elgood up the little hillock to the
right, and, pausing just short of the top, peered stealthily around. A
simultaneous exclamation broke from both lips; simultaneously they drew
back, and crouched on their knees to peer over the heather.
There they went!--straggling in a row in the direction of the inn, the
party of revellers who had been so basely deserted.
First, the clergyman, with his hands clasped behind his back, his head
bent in thought; a pensive reveller, this, already beginning to repent a
heavy, indigestible meal; next, Mrs Macalister, holding her skirts in
characteristic fashion well up in front and sweeping the ground behind;
a pace or two in the rear, her spouse, showing depression and weariness
in every line of his body. Yet farther along the two young men carrying
the empty hampers; last of all, at quite a little distance from the
rest, the figure of the Chieftain stepping out with a tread even more
conspicuously jaunty than usual, his hands thrust deep into his pockets,
his head turned from side to side, as if curiously scanning the
hillsides.
At one and the same moment Margot and the Editor ducked their heads, and
scrambled backwards for a distance of two or three yards. There was a
moment's silence, then instinctively their eyes met. Margot pressed her
lips tightly together, George Elgood frowned, but it was all in vain; no
power on earth could prevent the mischievous dimples from dipping in her
cheeks; no effort could hide the twinkle in his eyes--they buried their
heads in their hands, and shook with laughter!
When at last composure was regained, George Elgood pulled his watch from
his pocket, glanced at the time, and cried eagerly-"There is still an hour before we need be back for dinner. As well be
hanged for a sheep as a lamb. Let us go back to the river, and try our
luck once more!"