‘Thank you. Nothing would please me better. Only, I don’t want to be a trouble.’
‘O Mr Etheridge, it will be no trouble!’
That gentleman made Madame De Vigne an old-fashioned bow, and moved a few steps away.
‘You won’t mind my leaving you for a little while?’ said Clarice to her sister.
‘Not in the least. Besides, I’m not in a talking mood this morning.’
‘It would be unkind to leave Mr Etheridge all alone.’
‘Of course it would. So now run off, and do your best to entertain him.’
‘This way, Mr Etheridge, please,’ said Clarice. And with that the two went off together, crossing the bridge and taking the same path that had been taken a little while previously by Lady Renshaw and her two cavaliers.
‘The transparent diplomacy of a girl in love!’ said Madame De Vigne as her eyes followed her sister’s retreating figure. ‘Not having her sweetheart with her to talk to, she must needs talk about him to some one else. Happy, happy days!’ She turned away with a sigh. ‘And now? Shall I sit here and wait for Harold, and try to think what I shall say to him? No; I cannot rest anywhere till the worst is over. He may be here at any moment. I will walk to the top of the hill and watch for him as he comes up the valley. O Harold, Harold, won only to be lost in one short hour!’
She took a narrow footpath to the right, which wound upwards through the trees and undergrowth to a small plateau, from which the whole of the valley was visible.