"I didn't," answered Hester with ready invention. "I bought a ticket to York and I—I got off here because," she hesitated, and her eyes, wandering over the lake, rested on a company of swans that were drifting down the cove in stately squadron. In an instant she had her explanation.
"Yes?" said Merle encouragingly.
"I got off here because it was so beautiful. I wanted to be in the country—away from noise and smoke and—you see I've always lived in cities, and I've been unhappy there; I've had no luck there, and when I saw this lake and the hills and green things it seemed like a voice calling me, and I—I just got off the train. I couldn't help it."
There was a quiver in her voice that stirred Horatio's sympathy, but he hardened his heart.
"Then you had no specific purpose in coming to Ippingford?"
"Oh, no! I did not even know the name of the town."
"And suppose you had found no friends here, no employment? What would you have done?"
"I should have gone on to some other place. And I should never have forgotten the flowers and hedges and that lovely walk I took the day I met you—when you were so kind to me."
Her sweet, low tones moved him strangely, but he kept to his task.
"That was only natural, my dear, after you had come to my assistance. But tell me, are you contented here? Do you plan to stay with us, now that we have made a place for you?"