"Yes, Sir, nice, very nice."
Then followed a little fencing, which was intended by Victor to find out if the girl had seen them.
Came up this way a while ago, didn't she? Aw, yes, she did, to take last year's heifers to graze on the mountains. Seen anything hereabouts—that is to say on the tops? Aw, no, nothing at all—had he? Well, yes, he thought he'd seen something running on the ridge just over the waterfall.
The girl gave him a deliberate glance from her dark eyes, then dropped them demurely and said, with an innocent air,
"Must have been some of the young colts broken out of the top field, I suppose."
"That's all right," thought Victor, not knowing the ways of women though he thought himself so wise in them.
After that, feeling braver, he began to make play with the girl, asking her how far she had come, and if she wouldn't be lonesome going back without company.
She looked at him quizzically for a moment, and then said, with her eyes full of merriment,
"What sort of company, sir?"
"Well, mine for instance," he answered.