“Oh!—is it you?—are you back again?” she cried, with as much quiet indifference as she could put on.
“I have just arrived. My aunt is better. And how are you, Anne?”
“Very well, thank you.”
“Need you go in yet? Let us take a short stroll. The afternoon is delightful.”
He called it afternoon, but it was getting on fast for evening: and he turned in at the college gates as he spoke. So they wound round St. Michael’s Churchyard and passed on to the Dark Alley, and so down the long flight of steps that leads from it, and on to the banks of the Severn.
“How are you all going on at Lake’s?” he asked presently, breaking the silence.
“Just as usual. To-day is a grand field-day,” Anne added gaily: “at least, this evening is to be one, and we are not to dine until seven o’clock.”
“Seven? So much the better. But why?”
“Some people of importance are coming——”
Mr. Angerstyne’s laugh interrupted her. She laughed also.