Said a voice from behind the hedge:
"Girl in it?"
Tommy looked round, and encountered a tall young man in tweeds. He was looking at him, with amused eyes.
"I—I don't know what you mean," said Tommy.
The young man laughed.
"They're the devil, girls are," he observed.
Tommy was puzzled and eyed the stranger cautiously, thinking him the handsomest man he had seen.
Nor, in a way, was he at fault, for the young man was straight, and tall, and comely.
But there was something in the eyes—a lack of honest lustre—and in the lips—too sensuous for true manliness, that would have warned Tommy, had he been older, or even in a different frame of mind. Just now, however, a friend was welcome, and Tommy told his tale, as they strolled through the fields together.