And she turned slightly from him, and stretched up her hand for a branch above her head. The next moment he sprang up the bank lightly, and stood beside her.
"Permit me," he said. And with one sweep he drew the fragrant branch within her reach.
"And now will you come down?" he asked, as if she were some willful child. Stella smiled, and he held out his hand. She put hers into it, and his fingers closed over it with a grasp firm as steel, but as smooth as a woman's. As the warm fingers closed over hers, which were cold with her long grasp of the branch above her head, a thrill ran through her and caused her to shudder slightly.
"You are cold," he said, instantly. "The Spring evenings are treacherous. Have you far to go?"
"I am not cold, thanks," she said, with quick alarm, for there was a look in his eyes and a movement of his hand which seemed to give warning that he was about to take his coat off.
"I am not at all cold!"
"Have you far to go?" he repeated, with the air, gentle as it was, of a man who was accustomed to have his questions answered.
"Not far; to the little white gate there," she answered.
"The little white gate—to Etheridge's, the artist's?" he said gently, with a tone of surprise.
Stella bent her head; his eyes scanned her face.