“I ought to apologize for my appetite,” he said, “but I have been rambling about ever since breakfast, and I find the air here very stimulating.”
“Don’t think of apologizing!” returned Gerald. “I am glad you relished my simple supper.”
“Now, if I were only sure of a bed, I should feel quite easy in mind.”
“I will gladly offer you a bed. This is the first night that I should have been alone, and the solitude depressed me.”
“I will accept your kind offer thankfully. But you ought to know whom you are obliging.”
The stranger drew from his pocket a card on which Gerald read the name:
The Hon. Noel Brooke.
“I should be glad to give you my card, Mr. Brooke,” said Gerald, “but here in this wilderness cards are not customary. My name is Gerald Lane.”
“I am delighted to know you, Mr. Lane,” said the tourist offering his hand cordially.