“Yes, I did it,” said Rachel steadily. “It is easily done.”
“And then you came over here and got breakfast?”
“Not at all. I helped Mrs. Robeson and Mary McKaim get it. Doctor Barnes, do you know that you are standing directly in my path?”
“Certainly,” said the doctor. “It’s what I’m here for.”
“Then I shall have to go back and take the road home.”
“If you do you will evade me only to encounter another man. Lockwood’s keeping a ferret’s eye on the Robeson house door; and I think Cathcart is already patrolling the road in front of your house.”
The girl turned. “You are making me feel very absurd,” she said. “I want to go home, Doctor Barnes. Please let me pass you.”
“May I go with you?”
“I would rather not.”
“Well, that’s frank,” he said, amusement and chagrin struggling for the uppermost. “I wonder I don’t stalk angrily away——”