"Oh! you talked with Mr. Williams," she said. "Did you like him?"
"Not particularly."
Another silence. They had turned from the public road, and were being enclosed in the forest.
"How did you like Dick Rowan, Carl?" The question came with a faint sense of strain in the voice, and it was not answered immediately.
"I hope you will not expect me to be as fond of him as you are," he said presently. "He may be like a brother to you, but to me he is a stranger."
"But what do you think of him?" she persisted.
"He is very handsome," Carl said in a quiet tone, "and he looks like an honest fellow. I have no fault to find with him."
They turned up the avenue, alighted, and went up the steps together.
"Carl," said Edith wistfully, "are you troubled about anything?"
"What should trouble me, child?" he asked, with a touch of kindness in his voice.