"See what a magnet you are!" cried Sir Capel, striking a comic attitude as Angel descended the path towards him—the other travellers had passed on unconscious of her vicinity.
"Am I? I was not aware of it before," she said. "Sir Capel Tudor, let me introduce Mr. Brady, my husband's assistant."
"—who is worked to death," he supplemented with a grin and a bow.
"You do not appear to be in any immediate danger," rejoined Sir Capel, pointing derisively to the butterfly net, "is it very laborious?"
"Oh, merely an hour off duty. What has brought you out to the back of beyond?"
"An all-consuming curiosity," replied the little traveller, addressing himself particularly to Angel. "I've been hearing no end about the flood that is to be, and will be, the sight of the century, and I am mad keen to see it."
"But why?"
"A great lake bursting from its prison at a stated hour. The telegraph bell rings, and half a province is instantly inundated. That's about it? So here I am."
"So I see," said Angel. "But what has brought Mrs. Waldershare and the general?"
"She came because she required a complete change, and wanted to be with you—she's awfully fond of you, you know. And the general is here for the diametrically opposite cause to that which has brought me. He swears it's all a mare's nest, and has come to see what will not happen, and to crow."