“Perhaps I had better—I must not detain you, Miss Atherton.”
She saw through him at once, and laughed.
“You propose to follow me with those things as if I was an Eastern princess! Perhaps I had better carry them myself if you are afraid of me.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” said Jeffreys.
“But you are afraid of auntie. So am I—I hope she’ll meet us. What were you saying about the weather, Mr Jeffreys?”
Jeffreys glanced in alarm at his audacious companion. He had nothing for it after this challenge but to walk with her and brave the consequences. There was something in her half-mutinous, half-confiding manner which rather interested him, and made the risk he was now running rather exhilarating.
“Percy seems to have forsaken you,” said she, after a pause, “since his friends came. I suppose he is sure to be blowing his brains out or something of the sort on the moors.”
“Percy is a fine fellow, and certainly has some brains to blow,” observed Jeffreys solemnly.
Raby laughed. “He’s quite a reformed character since you came,” said she; “I’m jealous of you!”
“Why?”