‘Yes, appeal to him, do! Perhaps he will be better then.’
They walked on together, Loveday seeming to experience much quiet bliss.
‘I came to look for you,’ he said, ‘because of that dear, sweet letter you wrote.’
‘Yes, I did write you a letter,’ she admitted, with misgiving, now beginning to see her mistake. ‘It was because I was sorry I had blamed you.’
‘I am almost glad you did blame me,’ said John cheerfully, ‘since, if you had not, the letter would not have come. I have read it fifty times a day.’
This put Anne into an unhappy mood, and they proceeded without much further talk till the mill chimneys were visible below them. John then said that he would leave her to go in by herself.
‘Ah, you are going back to get into some danger on my account?’
‘I can’t get into much danger with such a fellow as he, can I?’ said John, smiling.
‘Well, no,’ she answered, with a sudden carelessness of tone. It was indispensable that he should be undeceived, and to begin the process by taking an affectedly light view of his personal risks was perhaps as good a way to do it as any. Where friendliness was construed as love, an assumed indifference was the necessary expression for friendliness.
So she let him go; and, bidding him hasten back as soon as he could, went down the hill, while John’s feet retraced the upland.