"Has anything happened?"
"No; but you do not know me?"
"Oh, do tell me the news, sir."
"I'm Walter Stayford."
"And were you at the shooting-match, Mr. Stayford? Did Owen win? Why won't he come to-night? Oh, do tell me."
"Nothing serious has happened," said Stayford, very deliberately. He had never visited the Howards, but had often met Owen and his sister at dances and picnics, so he felt that he was not altogether a stranger to Bertha. Her eagerness and curiosity provoked him to withhold the good news he had come to tell.
"But did he win? where is he?"
"We left him at Grundy's farm."
"Then you were there?"
"Yes."