"Are you very tired of me?" she unexpectedly inquired. "Do you want me to go up to the house and tell Caro you are waiting here?"
Here she laughed, the sound ringing out in the still air. But before he could reply, the girl had risen to her feet.
Lawrence rose quickly also. "Are you going?" he asked.
"I bore you so," she said. She was standing before him, her hands clasped and hanging down in front of her. Her face was turned to him, but her eyelids were drooped.
He gave a short laugh. He tried to speak, but his tongue blundered over the words. At last he said, constrainedly, "You speak that which is not." Then he tried to laugh again.
Prudence looked about her rapidly. She took a step nearer to her companion.
"It isn't in the least likely that we shall ever be alone together again," she said, in a half voice; "so why need we quarrel?"
"Why, indeed? I have forgiven you, and we are going to be friends. Isn't that our attitude towards each other?"
Prudence clasped her hands. "Oh, Rodney, you don't forgive me, and you don't like me any more!"
He stood silent, grimly looking at the woman before him.