“You are a most informal person, Mr. Armitage,” said Shirley coldly.
“I’m afraid I am! The most amazing ill luck follows me! I had dropped in to enjoy the quiet and charm of your garden, but the tranquil life is not for me. There was another gentleman, equally bent on enjoying the pergola. We engaged in a pretty running match, and because I was fleeter of foot he grew ugly and tried to put me out of commission.”
He was still laughing, but Shirley felt that he was again trying to make light of a serious situation, and a further tie of secrecy with Armitage was not to her liking. As he walked boldly to the veranda steps, she stepped back from him.
“No! No! This is impossible—it will not do at all, Mr. Armitage. It is not kind of you to come here in this strange fashion.”
“In this way forsooth! How could I send in my card when I was being chased all over the estate! I didn’t mean to apologize for coming”—and he laughed again, with a sincere mirth that shook her resolution to deal harshly with him. “But,” he went on, “it was the flowerpot! He was mad because I beat him in the foot-race and wanted to shoot me from the wall, and I tossed him a potted geranium—geraniums are splendid for the purpose—and it caught him square in the head. I have the knack of it! Once before I handed him a boiling-pot!”
“It must have hurt him,” said Shirley; and he laughed at her tone that was meant to be severe.
“I certainly hope so; I most devoutly hope he felt it! He was most tenderly solicitous for my health; and if he had really shot me there in the garden it would have had an ugly look. Armitage, the false baron, would have been identified as a daring burglar, shot while trying to burglarize the Claiborne mansion! But I wouldn’t take the Claiborne plate for anything, I assure you!”
“I suppose you didn’t think of us—all of us, and the unpleasant consequences to my father and brother if something disagreeable happened here!”
There was real anxiety in her tone, and he saw that he was going too far with his light treatment of the affair. His tone changed instantly.
“Please forgive me! I would not cause embarrassment or annoyance to any member of your family for kingdoms. I didn’t know I was being followed—I had come here to see you. That is the truth of it.”