‘Alack! I have good reason.’
‘I prithee forgive me, mistress. You would, if you knew how I had suffered in my mind. I thanked you for that cough!’
‘Did you think it was uttered to attract you?’
‘If I dared to hope so!’
‘Insolence! Well, it was.’
‘It was!’ He cried it in rapture. ‘Then you wanted to speak to me—to forgive me?’
‘I will hear your story first.’ So the inquisitive jade confessed herself.
‘O, O! May I come up beside you?’
She regarded him from under superior lids; and then the little dimples flickered again. Leaning back against the rock, she patted the turf beside her.
‘Come.’