Grange couldn't say, really. He advised her to ask the man himself. He was observing Muriel with some uneasiness, and when she at length abruptly waved her whip and rode sharply on as though her horse were beyond her control, he struck spurs into his own and started in pursuit.
Muriel passed her own gate at a canter, but hearing Grange behind her she soon reined in, and they trotted some distance side by side in silence.
But Grange was still uneasy. The girl's rigid profile had that stony, aloof look that he had noted upon his arrival weeks before, and that he had come to associate with her escape from Wara.
Nevertheless, when she presently addressed him it was in her ordinary tone and upon a subject indifferent to them both. She had received a shock, he knew, but she plainly did not wish him to remark it.
They rode quite soberly back again, and separated at the door.
CHAPTER XXI
A HARBOUR OF REFUGE
To Daisy the news that Grange imparted was more pleasing than startling. "I knew he would come before long if he were a wise man," she said.
But when her cousin wanted to know what she meant, she would not tell him.
"No, I can't, Blake," was her answer. "I once promised Muriel never to speak of it. She is very sensitive on the subject."