There was an instant’s respite while the carriage drew up to the veranda steps. She heard the stable-boy running out to help with the horses.
“You can’t go now; come in and wait.”
There was no time for debate. She flung open the door and swept him past her with a gesture—through the library and beyond, into a smaller room used by Judge Claiborne as an office. Armitage sank down on a leather couch as Shirley flung the portieres together with a sharp rattle of the rod rings.
She walked toward the hall door as her father and mother entered from the veranda.
“Ah, Miss Claiborne! Your father and mother picked me up and brought me in out of the rain. Your Storm Valley is giving us a taste of its powers.”
And Shirley went forward to greet Baron von Marhof.
CHAPTER XVII
A GENTLEMAN IN HIDING
Oh, sweetly fall the April days!
My love was made of frost and light,
Of light to warm and frost to blight
The sweet, strange April of her ways.
Eyes like a dream of changing skies,
And every frown and blush I prize.
With cloud and flush the spring comes in,
With frown and blush maids’ loves begin; For love is rare like April days.
—L. Frank Tooker.