"Yes. I—I do. I do like it;" emphatically.
"That's flat." This time he laughed outright, seeming so much amused by her brusquerie, that she perceived how it must have struck him.
No matter, it was as well he should be thus struck. He would know for the future.
"Your grounds are so extensive that you have a pretty wide range for your rambles," resumed Paul, in the same easy, friendly accents; "you can walk all the way to Claymount without touching the road, young Purcell tells me; and as for the paths, they seem to be legion; I should get lost if I attempted to wander about by myself."
"Don't wander then; I advise you not. You really might get lost."
"And then if I fell in with you I should be obliged to throw myself on your mercy, which would be a terrible catastrophe."
"Oh, I should soon get rid of you," she made an effort to retort in the same light tone; "I should say—" she paused, "I should say, 'Maud is there,' and you would fly."
"Is Maud then a woodland nymph also?"
Was it her own fancy or was there an almost imperceptible pause before he spoke? And did the gay tone of the minute before undergo ever so slight a modification? Leo made answer with rather forced jocularity.
"It would be my ruse for throwing you off, don't you see? I should not be positive absolutely that Maud was there, or anywhere—but you could look. You might find her—or you might not. But anyhow you would not find me if you came back."