“I should think not, indeed! Who expected that you should? I am not at all sure that I care to hear it.”
“Oh, but—I want to tell you!”
The Chieftain chuckled with amusement. He was evidently comfortably convinced of the non-importance of the forthcoming revelations, and Margot’s courage suffered another ebb as she returned his unsuspicious glance.
“I—we—we knew that you were staying at the Nag’s Head!”
The Chieftain cocked a surprised eyebrow, startled but unresentful.
“You knew that we were here, before you arrived, and met us in the flesh? Is that so? I wonder how you heard! I make it a rule to keep my holiday plans as secret as possible, for the very good reason that a holiday is a holiday, and one wants a change of companionship as well as scene. How in the world did you hear that we were bound for Glenaire? I’m curious!”
Margot’s eyelids fell guiltily, but Nature had generously endowed these same lids with long black lashes, the points of which curled up in a manner distractingly apparent when shown in contrast with a flushed pink cheek; so it happened that instead of being hardened by the sight, the Chieftain drew a few inches nearer, and smiled with genial approval.
“Well, out with it! How did you hear?”
“I—asked!”
“Asked?” The brow became a network of astonished wrinkling. “You asked? Whom did you ask? And why? What did you know about us, to give you interest in our comings or goings? This grows curiouser and curiouser! I imagined that we were as absolute strangers to you as you were to us.”