He looked steadily at her for a moment, but her parasol had dropped a little upon his side and he could not see her face.
“Yes, I have tried,” he said slowly, “and I have suffered a great disappointment. She knows quite well that I am searching for her, and she prefers to remain undiscovered.”
“That sounds strange,” she remarked, with her eyes fixed upon the distant Surrey hills. “Do you know her reason?”
“I am afraid,” he said deliberately, “that there can be only one. It's a miserable thing to believe of any woman, and I'd be glad—”
He hesitated. She kept her eyes turned away from him, but her manner denoted impatience.
“Over on this side,” he continued, “it seems that Monty was a gentleman in his day, and his people were—well, of your order! There was an Earl I believe in the family, and no doubt they are highly respectable. He went wrong once, and of course they never gave him another chance. It isn't their way—that sort of people! I'll admit he was pretty low down when I came across him, but I reckon that was the fault of those who sent him adrift—and after all there was good in him even then. I am going to tell you something now, Miss Wendermott, which I've often wanted to—that is, if you're interested enough to care to hear it!”
All the time she was asking herself how much he knew. She motioned him to proceed.
“Monty had few things left in the world worth possessing, but there was one which he had never parted with, which he carried with him always. It was the picture of his little girl, as she had been when his trouble happened.”
He stooped a little as though to see over the white rails, but she was too adroit. Her face remained hidden from him by that little cloud of white lace.
“It is an odd thing about that picture,” he went on slowly, “but he showed it to me once or twice, and I too got very fond of it! It was just a little girl's face, very bright and very winsome, and over there we were lonely, and it got to mean a good deal to both of us. And one night Monty would gamble—it was one of his faults, poor chap—and he had nothing left but his picture, and I played him for it—and won!”