“Excuse me, Miss Marshall,” and he spoke more seriously, “pardon my giving you advice, but you have had a hard morning and you will feel better, later on, for a little food. As for me, I have had nothing since yesterday, and shall collapse without it. Suppose I go to the house and scrape up some sort of a lunch. Won’t you come there in a few minutes?”
Her eyes travelled frigidly from his face to his feet. But before she could reply, he added:
“Besides, the owner may come back, now, at any minute, and if he finds us together it will save time in our getting off.”
Turning away to resume her walk she answered, indifferently: “Very well, I will be there soon.”
85VI
THE SECRET OF THE PINES
At one o’clock the lunch was served.
Pats had placed before the lady a portion of a ham, a plate of crackers, some marmalade, and a bottle of claret.
“There are provisions in the cellar,” he said, “to last a year: sacks of flour, dried apples, preserved fruits, potatoes, all sorts of canned things, and claret by the dozen.”