"Look you here, sir. That woman, whoever she might have been, was trying to do you an injury; to cause you to lose your life, I should say; and the chances are that she's concealed somewhere about here still. Look at the opportunities for hiding there are here! Why a whole regiment of gipsies and murderers and thieves might be skulking amid the trees, and us none the wiser till they showed themselves out with guns and knives. That woman—which I'll be bound was a man—may be watching to come out upon you, sir, if you can be caught by yourself."
Mr. Chandos laughed, but Lizzy Dene seemed in anything but a laughing mood. "I will stay with you, sir," I said, and sat down resolutely on the bench. Lizzy went off with a nod.
"Now, Miss Hereford, you and I have an account to settle," he began, as her footsteps died away in the distance. "Why am I 'sir' again?"
"Lizzy Dene was present," I answered, giving him the truth. I had not liked that she should see me familiar with him—putting myself, as it were, on a level with Mr. Chandos; and in truth the word still slipped out at odd times in my shyness. Lizzy Dene might have commented upon the omission in the household: but this I did not say. Mr. Chandos turned to look at me.
"Never mind who is present, I am not 'sir' to you. I beg you to recollect that, Miss Hereford. And now," he continued, taking my hand, "how am I to thank you?"
"For what?"
"For coming and looking for me. I might have lain until morning, inhaling the benefit of the night dews; or until that grey witch had 'come out again with a gun' and finished me."
The last words, a repetition of Lizzy Dene's, were spoken in joke. I laughed.
"You would soon have been found, without me, Mr. Chandos. Lizzy Dane was not many moments after me, and scores of others will be coming in before the night is over."
"I don't know about the 'scores.' But see how you destroy the romance of the thing, Miss Hereford! I wish there was a probability that the woman had gone into hiding in the groves of Chandos; I would soon have her hunted out of them."