“And what are you doing in my garden?” she asked.
His blue eyes swept the girl’s slim, supple figure as she lay in the hammock with a long, raking glance that missed nothing and then came back to her face.
“If I answered that question truthfully you’d pretend to be offended,” he said.
“I shouldn’t pretend—anything,” she retorted. “Please tell me why you’re here.”
“Oh, that’s quite a different proposition! I can answer that one. I’m here as the emissary of my respected Aunt Susan.”
“Lady Susan?”
“Yes. We’ve just walked over from White Windows, and when we arrived and found you were out, and that the delightful old Devonshire party who opened the door to us could supply no recent data concerning your whereabouts, Aunt Susan collapsed into a comfortable chair and sent me to spy out the land.”
Ann sprang up out of the hammock.
“How good of her to have walked over in all this heat!” she said, preparing to lead the way back to the house.
“It was my doing,” he replied with an air of complacency, as they walked on together. “I only arrived yesterday and she talked so much about you that I was consumed with a quite pardonable anxiety to meet you.”