"Why didn't she want me to come here—really?"
"She—she thought you came to meet some lad."
"Oh, no;" and she gave a little laugh, and pressed against him. "It's the truth, what I've always answered to her. I came because I couldn't help it. Shall I tell you all my secrets—secrets I've never told any one?"
"Yes."
"Ever since I was a child—quite small—I hev always thought something wondersome would happen to me in Hadleigh Wood."
"Why should you think that?"
He had sat up stiffly, and while she clung whispering at his breast he looked out over her head, glancing his eyes in all directions. Straight in front of him across the glade, the great beeches were gray and ghostly, and beyond them in the strip that concealed the ride it seemed that the shadows had suddenly thickened and blackened.
"I'll tell you. But you tell me something first. Does Mrs. Dale think this place is haunted?"
He changed his attitude abruptly, put his hands on her shoulders and held her away from him, so that he could see her face.
"What was it you asked me?"