Turning presently, where she knelt, to pick up another soiled garment, she suddenly encountered his dark gaze; and her start and slight exclamation were entirely genuine.
"Mon Dieu!" she said, with offended emphasis, "one does not approach people that way, without a word!"
"Did I frighten mademoiselle?" he asked, in recognizable French, but with an accent[pg 325] unpleasantly familiar to her. "If I did, I am very sorry and I offer mademoiselle a thousand excuses and apologies."
The girl, kneeling there in the clover, flashed a smile at him over her shoulder. The quick colour reddened his face and powerful neck. The girl had been right; her smile had been an answer that he was not going to ignore.
"What a pretty spot for a lavoir," he said, stepping to the edge of the pool; "and what a pretty girl to adorn it!"
Maryette tossed her head:
"Be pleased to pass your way, monsieur. Do you not perceive that I am busy?"
"It is not impossible to exchange a polite word or two when people are busy, is it, mademoiselle?" he asked, laughing and showing a white and perfect set of teeth under a short, dark mustache.
She continued to wring out her wash; but there was now a slight smile on her lips.
"May I not say who I am?" he asked persuasively. "May I not venture to speak?"