"Why, is he dead?"
"I should not have left him else, Miss Starling."
Diana did not choose to go on with a string of questions; and her companion hesitated.
"It's my own fault," he said with a sort of displeased half laugh; "a piece of boyish thoughtlessness that I've paid for. There was a nice red cow lying in the middle of the road"—
"Where?" said Diana, wondering.
"Just ahead of me; a few rods. She was lying quite quietly, taking her morning siesta in the sun; plunged in ruminative thoughts, I supposed, and the temptation was irresistible to go over without disturbing her."
"Over her?" said Diana in a maze.
"Yes. I counted on what one should never count on—what I didn't know."
"What was that?"
"Whether it would occur to her to get upon her legs, just at that moment."