He leaned back in his chair, his hands behind his head, and contemplated her with a criticism that lasted several seconds. His dark face wore its funny, monkeyish look of regret, half-wistful and half-feigned.
"I wish—" he said suddenly—"I wish I'd come down here when you first began to rusticate."
"Why?" said Juliet, with her level eyes upon him.
He laughed and sprang abruptly to his feet. "Quien sabe? I might have turned rustic too—pious also, my Juliette! Think of it! Life isn't fair to me. Why am I condemned always to ride the desert alone?"
"Mainly because you ride too hard," said Juliet. "None but you can keep up the pace. Ah!" She turned her head quickly, and the swift colour flooded her face.
"Ah!" mocked Saltash softly, watching her. "Is it Romeo's step that I hear?"
Columbus wagged his tail in welcome as Dick Green came round the corner of the Ricketts' cottage and walked down under the apple-trees to join them. He greeted Saltash with the quiet self-assurance of a man who treads his own ground. There was no hint of hostility in his bearing.
"I've been expecting you," he said coolly.
"Have you?" said Saltash, a gleam of malicious humour in his eyes. "I thought there was something of the conquering hero about you. I have come—naturally—to congratulate you on your conquest."
"Thank you," said Dick, and seated himself on the bench beside Juliet and
Columbus. "That is very magnanimous of you."