"So you stole away by yourself to enjoy this one."
Betty's brown eyes glanced slyly at him. There was a half smile in them, and yet they were serious. Dave began to refill his pipe.
"Well, Betty, you see I just thought I'd like a smoke. I've been with the kiddies all morning."
Suddenly the girl sat round facing him.
"Dave, I'm a little beast. I oughtn't to have made you come. I know you don't care for this sort of thing, only—well, you are so kind, and you are so fond of making people happy. And you—you—— Oh, Dave, I—I want to tell you something. That's—that's why I was hunting for you."
She had turned from him, and was gazing out down the stream now. Her face was flushed a deep scarlet. For an instant she had encountered his steady gray eyes and her confusion had been complete. She felt as though he had read right down into her very soul.
Dave put his pipe away. The serious expression of his rugged face was unchanged, but the smile in his eyes had suddenly become more pronounced.
"So that's why you hunted me out?" he said gently. "Well, Betty, you can tell me."
He had seen the blushing face. He had noted the embarrassment and hesitancy, and the final desperate plunge. He knew in his heart what was coming, and the pain of that knowledge was so acute that he could almost have cried out. Yet he sat there waiting, his eyes smiling, his face calmly grave as it always was.
For nearly a minute neither spoke. Then the man's deep voice urged the girl.