“Why, Gipsy girl!” he said slowly, “you are a woman—you have grown up all suddenly.”
“Yes, I am—I am a woman!” She laughed, but the laughter ended in a sob. She bent her head, and Johnny, strangely puzzled, slipped his arm about her and drew her a little closer to him.
He had thought her a child; but she was a woman, and he had seen in her eyes that which set his dull wits wondering.
CHAPTER XXXVI
“HE HAS COME BACK”
It was exactly a week since his departure that Hugh returned to Starden, and found Mrs. Bonner a little surprised, but by no means unready.
“You said as you’d send me a message, sir,” she said.
“I did, and I haven’t done it—I’ll take the consequences.” But there were no consequences to take. She prepared him an ample meal at the shortest notice, and was willing enough to stop and talk to him while he ate it.
“Anything new, anything fresh?”
“Nothing!”