"You find this scene more congenial, it appears, than our well ordered household, and dreaming away the hours, a much more agreeable task than trying to make a lady of my homespun wife?"
"Why," said Clemence, nervously, not replying to this singular speech, "how you startled me. Who would have thought of your being here? How did you find me? Have you any message from your wife?"
"None, whatever," he said, regarding her strangely, and replying to her last remark. "Do not go, just yet. Miss Graystone; I am tired, and would like to rest."
"In that case," returned Clemence, "I will leave you to yourself, and walk on, and you can come at your leisure."
"But I want to talk to you," he rejoined, detaining her, "I came here particularly for that purpose."
His look said more than his words, and set the girl's heart beating with sudden fear, as she thought of the strip of silent forest that lay between them and the town.
"I am in haste," she said, starting hurriedly forward, "and will listen to you when we get back to the house."
"And that is the very last thing I intend you shall do," he rejoined, springing from the grass, where he had thrown himself, and coming close to her, "I tell you, I want to talk to you."
"Well, if you have anything to say to me," she continued, hastening on, "you can proceed as we go along, for I cannot linger. I was not aware of its being so late, until you aroused me."
"There, I did not think of that," he added; "Susan will miss me, and, beside, some one might have been watching me follow you."