She suddenly raised her eyes and moved toward him, her look one of flushed embarrassment, but her manner urgent and determined.
“I’ll take you there,” she said hurriedly. “I know a way that’s quite shady, a path hardly anybody knows of. I found it, the spring and the path both, and I would so like to show it to you.”
Her voice fell to the key of coaxing, which was belied by her countenance, full of a keen, waiting anxiousness. She seemed to the man to be tremulously hanging on his word of consent.
“I guess I’ll have to go,” he said, looking down at her with eyes from which all disapproval had gone. “I’ll come up here for you—let’s see! The late afternoon’s the best time because it’s cooler. Say five. How’s that?”
“Here?” she said, looking away uneasily. “No, don’t come here. You know—” she drew closer to him, and resting her finger-tips on the lapel of his coat pressed them gently against his chest, half whispering—“this is to be a secret expedition. No one must know about it but us two.”
The Colonel backed away, eying her with tragical gravity from under his down-drawn brows.
“Look here, young woman,” he said, “what are you up to? Are you trying to kidnap the Colonel?”
Her dimple came, but no further indication of amusement disturbed the fluttered uneasiness of her countenance.
“No, no,” she said quickly; then tilting her head to one side and looking at him cajolingly, “but how I would like to!”
“I don’t think it’s safe for me to go,” he answered. “I’ve a suspicion you’re some kind of wood nymph or fairy who steals good-looking young men like me and keeps them in the woods for playmates. Can you give me any guaranty that I’ll reappear?”