"I have been to see mamma. Do not let me bring you out of your way, Captain Du Meresq,"—for he had turned back with her.
"Oh, I was only going for a walk," said Bertie, innocently,—a harmless amusement that, without any other object, he was simply incapable of undertaking. "Hadn't I better see you home; there's a brute of a dog down there who sprang out at me! I broke my stick across his head, and then, of course, I had to apologize, being disarmed."
"I know that fierce dog. He belongs to a cabman; but I always speak to him, and he never attacks me."
"Even a lion itself would flee from a maid in the pride of her purity," laughed Bertie. "But, Miss Leigh, must we positively go shivering across this bleak desert again?—isn't there some sheltered way through the wood?"
"There certainly is; but it is three miles round, and, I dare say, full of drifts."
"Never mind, all the better fun. Up this way?"
"Oh, but isn't it late? I think they will be expecting me before."
"There's nobody at home, if that's all," said Bertie. "They have gone to the Cathedral, and most likely will turn into tea at the Van Calmonts."
The scrambling walk was a temptation, the common hideous and cold.
"We must walk very quick, then."