“You will have to put my horse in place of the injured one, and go on to-night. I can walk.”
He did not affect that the idea was the happy thought of the moment, or that it was from all points of view a good one. He seemed from his tone to be making the best of a bad job, and Heron saw that so distinctly that he could only stammer out weakly:
“Oh, really, it’s awfully good of you, but we couldn’t allow you to walk.”
But the taller of the two girls came to her brother’s assistance.
“I think it’s a capital idea! Don’t you see, Jack, Mr Nairn wants ‘to give a practical proof of his sincerity’?”
The lazy, mischievous imitation of Nairn’s tone and manner in quoting his own words brought a hearty laugh from the others against Nairn, for he had “given himself away”; and once or twice as they were changing horses and preparing to start, Nairn found himself looking curiously at the girl who had “let him down.”
They were nearly ready to start when she came over to him, and said:
“You are not going to walk. You will come with us, won’t you?”
He shook his head.
“My way is not your way, Miss Heron.”