“You’ve got my view,” he said, after a pensive second. “I always get off here and lean over that rail for a bit. May I do so to-day?”
“It’s your gate,” she said, amiably; “you got it first. It’s for you to say if I may sit on it.”
He slipped off the horse. “Let me introduce you to Caesar,” he said; and she patted Caesar’s neck, and remarked how soft his nose was, and secretly deplored the ugliness of equine teeth. Ramage tethered the horse to the farther gate-post, and Caesar blew heavily and began to investigate the hedge.
Ramage leaned over the gate at Ann Veronica’s side, and for a moment there was silence.
He made some obvious comments on the wide view warming toward its autumnal blaze that spread itself in hill and valley, wood and village, below.
“It’s as broad as life,” said Mr. Ramage, regarding it and putting a well-booted foot up on the bottom rail.
Part 7
“And what are you doing here, young lady,” he said, looking up at her face, “wandering alone so far from home?”
“I like long walks,” said Ann Veronica, looking down on him.
“Solitary walks?”