"Why, to drop in on a lone woman unexpected, an' find her sittin' down to roast suckin' pig . . . it's—it's like Solomon an' the lilies."
Captain Cai flushed half-guiltily. "I didn't say I called quite unexpectedly, did I?"
"To break the ice, was your words."
"You see, I'd happened to meet Mrs Bosenna the evenin' before, an'—hullo!"
They had come to the bend of the road beneath Rilla Farm, and either his eyesight had played him a trick or Captain Cai had caught a glimpse— just a glimpse and no more—of a print gown some fifty yards ahead, where the hedge made an angle about a clump of trees. The small entrance gate and the footbridge lay just beyond this angle.
"Hullo!" exclaimed Captain Cai.
"What's up?"
"Nothin'"—for the light apparition had vanished. "Besides, she'd be wearin' black, o' course."
"I wish you'd talk more coherent," said Captain Tobias, stopping short again and eyeing him. "I put it to you, now. Here I be, tumbled out 'pon a terminus platform in a country I've never set eyes on. As if that wasn' enough, straightaway things start to happen so that I want to hold my head. And as if that wasn' enough, you work loose on the jawin' tacks till steerage way there's none. I put it to you."
"I'm sorry, 'Bias," Cai assured him contritely as they moved on. "Maybe I'm upset by the pleasure o' seein' ye here. Many a time I've picter'd it, an'—I don't know if you've noticed, but these little things never do fall out just like a man expects."