Small sounds became suddenly self-assertive. The rustle of squirrels along the pine-stems, the monotonous music of the cuckoo, varied by a charge of toy pistol-shots when an inexperienced monkey alighted on a dead twig. Brutus, standing squarely between them, eyed each in turn with critical speculation, his ugly head cocked very much to one side. He instinctively mistrusted all wearers of petticoats, and had found the buffalo incident very much more to his taste.
At length, in desperation, Quita made a movement as if to pass on. But
Lenox laid a peremptory hand upon her bridle.
"Tell me, how do you come to be here of all impossible places on earth?"
His voice was harder than he knew, and a slight shadow passed across her face.
"Is it really necessary to explain?" she asked, coldly.
He relinquished her bridle at that.
"As you please, of course. Only—it is a little awkward our being here together; and it might be as well to come to some sort of understanding before we separate. Are you up here for the season?"
"Yes, we have been up all the winter, Michael and I, except for two months at Lahore. When the snow melted we moved to the highest cottage on Bakrota. It is beautiful up there. We came out here eighteen months ago," she went on a trifle hurriedly, grateful, now that the ice was broken, for the relief of commonplace speech. "I had heard a good deal about India, you know. I wanted to see it for myself, and if possible put a little of it on canvas."
"And you are not disappointed?"
"No, indeed. It is wonderful beyond words."