"What nonsense! of course not; how like a man," said Lady Joan, contemptuously, "besides, the child is much too tired to walk all that way. Now for my two kisses, Sonny; I will make it three if you don't give me them at once, sir! I will go and make it right with his father, Mrs. Haxtell, if you will tell Dick to take the ponies quietly home, please. And may I go across the orchard?"
"Eh, but she doan't care what the towns-folk say, do she?" reflected Mrs. Haxtell, admiringly, as she watched the tall figure disappearing among the trees.
"I wonder what made me come," thought Lady Joan to herself, as she climbed the stile into the castle meadow; and her courage half failed her when she caught sight of a man in a brown felt hat that she had seen before, sitting on a fragment of the old ruined wall by the side of the brook.
But he had already seen her, and was coming towards her; and with a recklessness which she evidenced at once by letting her skirt trail on the damp grass, she went on to meet him.
CHAPTER V.
"Then marry me," the musician was saying, half-an-hour later. It had not struck him before that she might not possibly want to do so.
"But I have already told you that I do not love you," persisted Lady Joan, who was enjoying herself immensely.
"What does that matter? It will come in time, it is sure to come. Besides, I love you; is not that enough?"
It would have been, to most of his lady friends; but Lady Joan only caught the humor of his words, and laughed derisively.