His gaze turned from the points and turrets and the clouds she spoke of—that seemed to linger about the lofty summit—to the mainland, perhaps a mile distant.
"There!" he said, and specifically indicated a dark fringe, like a cloud on the lowlands.
"In the woods! How odd!" She looked at him with faint interest. "And don't the bears bother you? Once when I wanted to see what the woods were like, my nurse told me they were filled with terrible bears who would eat up little girls. I don't have a nurse any more," irrelevantly, "only a governess who came from the court of Versailles, and Beppo. Do you know Beppo?"
"No."
"I don't like him," she confided. "He is always listening. But why do you live in the woods?"
"Because!" The reason failed him.
"And didn't you ever live anywhere else?"
A shadow crossed the dark young face. "Once," he said.
"I suppose the bears know you," she speculated, "and that is the reason they let you alone. Or, perhaps, they are like the wolf in the fairy-tale. Did you ever hear of the kind-hearted wolf?"
He shook his head.