Now, in the first place, how was I to know Miss Nance Gwyn had sauntered down there in the middle of the afternoon? About five o'clock I came in, tired and hot, from a long drive to the country. So soon as I found no calls waiting for me, I thought of the pool in the Middleton's woods. Just before climbing the fence which would bring my destination into view, I heard one of Jean François' songs, but coming from the throat of the adorable Nance:
"It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o'er the green cornfield did pass,
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
"Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
These pretty country folks would lie,
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
"This carol they began that hour,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
How that life was but a flower
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When the birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
"And therefore take the present time
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
For love is crowned with the prime
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring."
I shall steal upon her and surprise her, I thought. So I crept silently over the fence, stepped around a tree, and how should I know with what my eyes were to be greeted?
There she sat like a nymph upon a ledge of projecting rock, idly dabbling her feet in the shallow water of the pool. But that was not all. Her dress was gathered from beneath her and slightly raised above her knees, disclosing some very frilly, lacy lingerie. I stood as one dumbfounded. I did not know whether to run and doubtless get caught in my hurrying away, or to take it as a matter of course, boldly facing it out. While I was arriving at a decision she raised the slenderest, whitest, most adorable pink-soled foot it would be possible for any woman to possess, with dainty air from the water, bringing her knee beneath her chin, and placed her heel upon the rock upon which she sat. Then she reached behind her for a pair of flimsy silk stockings and some slippers. Never before or since have I seen a picture at once so innocent and yet so seductively beautiful.
All of this took place, you must understand, in a very few seconds. Just here, however, when I was preparing for as hasty and as silent a retreat as possible, she involuntarily raised her face and caught me full in the eyes.
"Hello, Nance," said I, careless like, as I came forward, "been wading?"
"Wading," she replied, hastily standing, with a look of mingled dismay and anger upon her face. "As for you, Mr. King, I think you had better go!"