The overseer, knowing his lady, began to weaken.
"Anyhow, you would n't want two men. You might go on a pillion behind old Abraham. I could spare him."
"I shall not go a-horseback. 'T is too hot and dusty. I shall go in one of the sail-boats—the Bluebird, I think."
"Now, in the name of all that's contrary, what do you want to do that for, Mistress Patricia?" cried the harassed overseer. "It's twice as far by water."
"I 'll reach Rosemead before dark. The men can bring the boat back to-night, and Major Carrington will send me home on a pillion to-morrow."
"Have you forgotten that to-morrow is Sunday?" said the overseer severely, and with a new-born anxiety for the proper observance of the holy day. "Will you have the Colonel pay a fine for you?"
"I will go to service with the Carringtons then, and come home on Monday," said the lady serenely.
"There 's a squall coming up this afternoon."
"There isn't a cloud in the sky," said his mistress with calm conviction, looking straight before her at a low, tumbled line of creamy peaks along the horizon.
"If the Colonel were here—"