“Where are we going to?” asked she.
“To the park,” said he. “The part where the people aren’t, and where we can talk.”
Bold as the speech was, he had been confident that it would meet with no challenge.
And it did not.
CHAPTER VI
The hansom went quickly through the streets, and took them, as Gerard had said, to that quiet northern end of the park where scarcely a breath of the world’s life is ever drawn.
They got out and wandered into the little-frequented paths, by this time destitute even of the children and nursemaids whom they would have found at an earlier hour.
Both the young people felt that they were enjoying a sort of surreptitious picnic, an unconventional, ridiculous tête-à-tête which was all the more pleasant and all the more exciting from the fact that they stood each on the defensive towards the other: Rachel still affecting a haughty indignation at his suspicions; Gerard humble but unconvinced of the truth of her story.
“Well,” she said, breaking the silence, “you told me you were going to bring me here to talk. What are we to talk about?”
“I don’t care. Talk about anything, as long as I can hear you speak.”