“Thank God!” I cried. “Thank God! You are safe, then!”
“Safe?” she repeated, eyeing me a little curiously. “But certainly! What did you imagine?”
“I feared you had been captured,” I answered hoarsely. “Carried away! No matter, since you are safe.”
“I heard some one approaching,” she explained, still eyeing me, “and decided I would better conceal myself until I was certain it was you. That was wise, wasn’t it?”
“Wise? Oh, yes! But I thought I had lost you! I had stayed away so long.”
“And in truth,” she went on, laughing again, “I am not yet quite certain that it is really you. What a villainous countenance!”
“Yes,” I said, flushing. “The—the girl at the inn fixed it for me.”
“So!” she cried. “It was a girl that kept you—and pretty, I’ll be bound! To think that I have been worrying about you!”
“You must be nearly starved,” I said, anxious to change the subject.
“I confess a lively pleasure at the sight of that hamper. May I explore it?”