The first hundred yards of their course lay under motionless trees,
whose upper foliage began to hiss with falling drops of rain. By the
time that they emerged upon a glade it rained heavily.
"This is awkward," said Grace, with an effort to hide her concern.
Winterborne stopped. "Grace," he said, preserving a strictly business
manner which belied him, "you cannot go to Sherton to-night."
"But I must!"
"Why? It is nine miles from here. It is almost an impossibility in
this rain."
"True--WHY?" she replied, mournfully, at the end of a silence. "What is
reputation to me?"
"Now hearken," said Giles. "You won't--go back to your--"
"No, no, no! Don't make me!" she cried, piteously.
"Then let us turn." They slowly retraced their steps, and again stood
before his door. "Now, this house from this moment is yours, and not
mine," he said, deliberately. "I have a place near by where I can stay
very well."
Her face had drooped. "Oh!" she murmured, as she saw the dilemma.
"What have I done!"
There was a smell of something burning within, and he looked through
the window. The rabbit that he had been cooking to coax a weak
appetite was beginning to char. "Please go in and attend to it," he
said. "Do what you like. Now I leave. You will find everything about
the hut that is necessary."
"But, Giles--your supper," she exclaimed. "An out-house would do for
me--anything--till to-morrow at day-break!"
He signified a negative. "I tell you to go in--you may catch agues out
here in your delicate state. You can give me my supper through the
window, if you feel well enough. I'll wait a while."
He gently urged her to pass the door-way, and was relieved when he saw
her within the room sitting down. Without so much as crossing the
threshold himself, he closed the door upon her, and turned the key in
the lock. Tapping at the window, he signified that she should open the
casement, and when she had done this he handed in the key to her.
"You are locked in," he said; "and your own mistress."
Even in her trouble she could not refrain from a faint smile at his
scrupulousness, as she took the door-key.
"Do you feel better?" he went on. "If so, and you wish to give me some
of your supper, please do. If not, it is of no importance. I can get
some elsewhere."