"Yes, I am Miss Durrell."
"I am trying to hear something of Mr. Jasper Benham. His horse came home this morning without him. I had an idea that he might have been at Stonehanger."
Jeremy believed in being blunt with women. He wanted to try Nance and to judge her by the way she reacted to his words. And react she did, in a way that made Jeremy rearrange his notions.
"Are you a friend of Jasper's?"
She came across the stone bridge over the ditch, the white eagerness of her face driving the cynicism out of Jeremy's mood.
"I may say so. I am his adopted uncle, and almost taught him to walk."
He eyed Nance with keen sympathy. She was all pale and intent passion. There had been none of those self-conscious changes of colour, those vain little manœuvres that so few women can forget. The girl was white steel, fine-tempered, and a little fierce.
"Did Jasper tell you where he was going last night?"
"I had been away from Rush Heath all day."
"Had he told you nothing? I have been awake all night—waiting."