“I am afraid,” he remarked to himself as he heaved the leaf-mould out of the barrow, “that she knew perfectly well there was no one at the gate. I wonder why she said there was, and why, above all, she made such an extraordinarily unexpected appearance.”
These considerations engrossed his mind for at least the next half-hour, when, the leaf-mould having been transported from the wood, he went round to the front of the house to trim the edges of the lawn. He was on his knees on the gravel path, busily engaged with a pair of shears, when he heard the amazing sound of the front door opening and shutting. He looked round over his shoulder, to see the same apparition that had appeared to him from the wood, walking calmly down the steps and in the direction of the drive. Apparently she was too engrossed with her own thoughts to observe him where he was kneeling at a little distance to the eastward of the front door.
“Well!” ejaculated Antony bewildered. And he gazed after her.
It was not till her white dress had become a speck in the distance, that Antony remembered the long soft glove reposing in his pocket. He dropped his shears, and bolted after her.
Trix was half-way down the drive, when she heard rapid steps behind her. She looked back, to see that she was being pursued by the young man who had formerly been trundling a wheelbarrow.
Her first instinct was one of flight. Her second, conscious that the owner of the property had condoned her intrusion, and also having in view the fact that there was nowhere but straight ahead to run, and he was in all probability fleeter of foot than she, was to stand her ground, and that as unconcernedly as possible.
“Yes?” queried Trix with studied calmness, as he came up to her.
“Excuse me, Miss, but you dropped this in the kitchen garden.” Antony held out the long soft glove.
“Oh, thank you,” said Trix, infinitely relieved that his rapid approach had signified nothing worse than the restoration of her own lost property. And then she looked at him. Where on earth had she seen him before?
“There wasn’t any one at the gate, Miss,” said Antony suddenly.