"I will if I can, Captain Fortescue."
"Will you tell me exactly what your life here is? Take an ordinary day, yesterday, for instance. Tell me what time you got up and went to bed, and give me a sketch of the day."
She did as he asked her, in as lively and cheerful a way as she could, making the best of everything, and dwelling very little on the discomforts of her life, or on the hard work which she had to do.
"Thank you," he said again, when she had finished. "I'm afraid you will think me awfully inquisitive, but I had a reason for wishing to know."
"A reason, did you say? What was it?"
He hesitated a little before answering her.
"Never mind," she said. "Don't tell me, if you had rather not."
"Oh, I don't mind your knowing, if you don't mind my telling you, Miss Douglas. You see, I sometimes—I often think of you, and wonder what you are doing—and now I shall be able to picture it out."
They walked on without speaking for a minute or two after that, and then he looked at his watch and said he must catch the next train at Deepfields, as that was the best way to get back to Birmingham, and as the station was some way off he would have to go in that direction.
"What a long way for you to go back!" he said suddenly. "Don't come any farther."