"The words are pure nonsense. I used them to show you how baseless your fear appears. But I speak now in earnest to say that you ought not to come out at night alone if you are thus alarmed."
"But I am perfectly safe with the dogs."
"Just so. Then why were you afraid?"
"I—I—in that shawl mistook you for——" She came to a final pause.
He remembered now that, to shield himself from the drenched verdure, he had wrapped a camp blanket around him.
"Yes, I certainly cut a queer figure—like an old wife; but, pardon my insistence, it is not good for any woman to be so terror-stricken as you were just now. That you are safe from danger with the dogs I truly think; but fear itself is injurious. If you are not safe from unruly fears, why roam where you invite them? It is always possible to meet a stranger."
"Oh, I am not afraid of travelers."
"Any shadow may assume a fantastic form."
"But I am really not afraid of odd appearances."
"Then why were you afraid of my blanket?"