‘I think I can do nothing more,’ he said, with a formality which came to him at times, ‘so I will wish your ladyship a good-night.’
‘May I ask where you are going, sir, and how you propose to get there in that condition?’
‘It is nothing,’ replied Gilbert, ‘and Whanland is a bare four miles from here. With your permission I will start at once.’
‘Nonsense, Mr. Speid! You will do nothing of the sort. Do you suppose I shall allow you to walk all that way, or to leave Morphie till your face has been attended to? Come, Captain Somerville, let us go to the house. Sir, I insist upon your coming with us.’
The men from the stable were instructed to remain at the dovecot door until Jimmy should return with the police, and Gilbert recognised Macquean as Lady Eliza again drove him forward to light the party back under the trees. He made no comment, feeling that the moment was unsuitable, and being somewhat interested in the fact that a young woman, of whose features he could only occasionally catch a glimpse, was walking beside him; as the torchlight threw fitful splashes across her he could see the outline of a pale face below a crown of rather elaborately dressed dark hair. Lady Eliza had directed him to follow his servant, and was herself delayed by the sailor’s slow progress. Though he had never seen his companion before, she was known to him by hearsay. Her silent step, and the whiteness of her figure and drapery against the deep shadows between the trees, gave him a vague feeling that he was walking with Diana. He grew aware of his bloody face, and immediately became self-conscious.
‘I fear I am a most disagreeable object, Miss Raeburn,’ he said.
‘I had not observed it, sir,’ she replied.
‘You are very kind, but you must think me unpleasant company in this condition, all the same.’
‘I can think of nothing but that you have saved my aunt’s pigeons. She says little, but I knows he is grateful. There has always been a large flock at Morphie, and their loss would have vexed her very much.’
‘I owe Stirk—Stirk, the young cadger—a debt for bringing me word of what was going to happen. He heard of it in Blackport, and came straight to tell me.’