He groaned, but became once more quiet.
"Since you are so fidgetty," I said, "why did you not come to see me at
Thornton House?"
"Why, Daisy," he replied, rolling a stray lock of my hair round his finger, "because I am a burglar, and not a swindler. I may rob a man of his jewel, but I will not cheat him out of it."
"Abduction and 9th George IV," rushed into my head; but I carelessly said:—
"So I am to be stolen property."
He laughed, and did not contradict it.
"But how will you manage?" I asked.
"It is not settled yet?" he replied evasively; "but you shall know all the next time we meet here."
"Then why this meeting of to-day, Cornelius?—why this useless danger?"
"Danger!—there is none for me; and if there were, I would meet and brave it willingly for this sight of your face. Now do not look so like a shy fawn, though it becomes you charmingly. It was quite pretty to watch you hidden in the ferns. Every now and then you raised your fair head like a young Nereid, then dipped it again into that green sea, where I now lie flat like a dead fish; and yet, Daisy, how pleasant it is to be here with you!"