“Joan, Joan, my lass, where art thou?”
The girl gave one frightened glance at her lover, forbade him to follow her and speak to her father till she had prepared the way, and fled away like an arrow from a bow.
Happy and excited with the joy of successful love, Tregenna was sauntering round the house towards a side-gate out of the park, when Ann’s voice startled him.
He knew not whence she had sprung; but she was looking at him from out a clump of bushes with a strange smile on her pallid face.
As he started, she burst into a low, mocking laugh.
“Ay, sir, kiss while you can; speak low when there’s a fair maid to listen. But the game’s not played out yet!”
Upon those words, with a flashing look from her great somber gray eyes, she disappeared abruptly.
CHAPTER XVII.
AN INNOCENT RIVAL.