"I told you I should come."
"Yes, you told me."
"What I tell you I will do that I do do. Nothing that may happen will cause me to change my mind." He looked past her along the way she had come, then addressed the chauffeur. "There is something lying on the road. It may be something Miss Arnott has dropped--go and see."
"I don't think it is anything of mine. I have had nothing to drop."
"Go and see what it is." The man, descending, returned along the road. "I don't choose to have everything you and I may have to say to each other overheard. You knew that I should come, why did you not stay in? of what were you afraid?"
"Afraid? I? Of nothing, There was no reason why I should be afraid."
He searched her face, as if seeking for something which he was amazed to find himself unable to discover.
"You are a strange woman; but then women were always puzzles to me. You may not be stranger than the rest--I don't know. Hadn't you better go away again to-day? Back to the Lake of Como or further?"
"Why should I go away? Of what are you afraid?"
"Of what am I not afraid? I am even afraid to think of what I am afraid--of such different stuff are we two made. I never knew what fear was, before; now, I hardly dare to breathe for fear."