"Are you too tired to have a walk with me?" he said. "Not far—down there under the shade of the elm-trees. You need not be cruel, Frances. You can come with me as far as that."
Frances blushed still more vividly.
"I am really very tired," she answered. There was unwillingness in her tone.
Arnold gazed at her in surprise and perplexity.
"Perhaps," he said, suddenly, looking at Fluff, "perhaps, if you are quite too tired even to stir a few steps, Frances, Miss Danvers would not greatly mind leaving us alone here for a little."
Before she could reply, he went up to the young girl's side and took her hand apologetically.
"You don't mind?" he said. "I mean, you won't think me rude when I tell you that I have come all the way from Australia to see Frances?"
"Rude? I am filled with delight," said Fluff.
Her eyes danced; she hummed the air of "Sweethearts" quite in an obtrusive manner as she ran into the house.
"Oh, squire," she said, running up to the old man, who had seated himself in his favorite chair in the parlor. "I have discovered such a lovely secret."