“I began to think I’d never find you,” he said at last in his quietest way, and Paddy started violently, and flushed to the roots of her hair, while she continued gazing across the loch, quite unable to meet his eyes.
He sat down on the log beside her, and leaned forward with his arms across his knees, playing idly with a twig he had picked up.
“I went to the Parsonage first,” he continued, “and they told me you had gone out directly after lunch, and they believed you were sailing. I went down to the beach and found the boat, and decided you had taken a walk instead, and came to look for you. I was lucky to find you in such an out-of-the-way corner. Are you quite all right again!”
He was still keeping his eyes from her, playing with the twig, and Paddy unconsciously clenched her hands hard in her effort to feel collected.
“Yes, thank you!” She hesitated, still looking hard at the loch. Then she gulped down a long breath and took the plunge. “I am glad you have come. I have been wanting to see you.” She noticed suddenly that he looked white and ill, and his face was a little drawn. “Have you been ill?”
“No, I have not been ill, only worried. I should have come sooner—only—” he hesitated.
“I wanted to see you to thank you,” she interrupted. “Of course I know you risked your life to save mine. I might easily have died up there with the cold—and you might easily have slipped into a bog looking for me. No—” as he tried to stop her, “I must go on. Don’t you see how it’s just strangling me to remember that you risked so much—after—after—” her voice died away, she could find no words. She knew all in a moment that the casual acquaintance of the last three weeks was once more the lover, and the further complication unnerved her.
“As if that made any difference,” a little harshly. “Haven’t I told you that your scorn and threats cannot in any way change me—and never will. Good God! do you suppose I care two straws about risking my twopenny-halfpenny life when it is for you?”
She shrank away visibly, and he changed his manner.
“There, I don’t want to worry you—but for Heaven’s sake don’t thank me. I can’t stand it. There can be no question of thanks between you and me.”