"Momentarily!" she sighed. "But Sir Benjamin Tripp is somewhere about, the Marquis is not far hence and Mr. Marchdale mopes at hand——"
"You mean they seek you——?"
"Most pertinaciously, sir, but quite vainly by reason that I can climb."
"Climb?" repeated the Major, staring, "pray what?"
"A wall, sir."
"Wall?" he murmured.
"Two, sir. I had to run away. They're dear creatures, to be sure, but the Marquis persists in recounting pedigrees of horses and dogs, Sir Benjamin rhapsodises in metre and poor Mr. Marchdale, being very young, is so egregiously in love with me that I climb and clamber over walls and here I am. Pray aid me over this stile ere they find me."
The Major's aid was so energetic and prompt that Lady Betty was over the stile and walking beside him, flushed and a little breathless all in a moment.
"You are forgetting your fine cane, sir," said she in a small voice.
"Aye, to be sure!" And flushing, he picked it up rather hastily.