In a short time she rose to go home, and he made no protest after he had extorted a reluctant promise that she would return again. Her reluctance did not go very deep.
“Why have you told me so little about yourself?” she asked, as they went along the plateau. “I know your name, and I know that I must not speak of you to any one; but that is not much.”
He was not embarrassed by these questions, for he had long ago foreseen them and prepared something to meet them with.
“What are you doing here?” continued she. “Does no one ever see you?”
“No one but you and one other. If I were seen I should have to leave this place at once. I am a Government agent on private business for the Crown.”
He paused a moment, and Isoline’s eyes opened wide in her interest.
“Yes,” she said, “go on.”
“I’m employed by Government to watch some people who are thought to be doing wrong, and to do that, I have to keep myself out of sight.”
“Who are they, and what are they doing?”