"There's hard work and perhaps some trouble ahead, but you won't regret you faced it. You'll be a rich man in another year or two!"
Blake smiled at his enthusiasm.
"Emile and the dogs are leaving us behind," he said. "We'll have to hustle!"
CHAPTER XXII
THE GIRL AND THE MAN
It was a clear winter afternoon and the sunshine that entered a window of the big hall at Hazlehurst fell upon Millicent as she sat in one of the recesses reading a book. Blake thought she looked very beautiful. As she raised her eyes and caught sight of him she started, and, dropping the book, she rose with a tingle of heightened color, while Blake felt his heart beat fast. Thrown off her guard as she had been, he caught the gladness in her eyes before she could hide it.
"You are surprised at my turning up?" he asked, holding her hand an unnecessarily long time and smiling into her eyes.
The color was still in Millicent's cheeks and she was conscious of an unusual shyness; but she tried to answer naturally.
"I knew that Colonel Challoner had given orders for you to be traced, if possible, and I knew that you had been found; but that was all Mrs. Keith told me. I suppose she didn't know—didn't think, I mean—that I was interested."
"I shall believe that was very foolish of her," Blake said softly, with a question in his voice.