'No, mem,' answered that exceedingly shy youth, 'he wass not about all the morning. But I heard the crack of a gun; maybe he wass on the hill.'
And presently he said—
'I'm thinking that's him along the road—it's two of his dogs whatever.'
And indeed this did turn out to be Ronald who was coming striding along the road, with his gun over his shoulder, a brace of setters at his heels, and something dangling from his left hand. The driver pulled up his horses.
'I've brought ye two or three golden plover to take with ye, Miss Hodson,' Ronald said—and he handed up the birds.
Well, she was exceedingly pleased to find that he had not neglected her, nay, that he had been especially thinking of her and her departure. But what should she do with these birds in a hotel?
'It's so kind of you,' she said, 'but really I'm afraid they're—would you not rather give them to my father?'
'Ye must not go away empty-handed,' said he, with good-humoured insistence; and then it swiftly occurred to her that perhaps this was some custom of the neighbourhood; and so she accepted the little parting gift with a very pretty speech of thanks.
He raised his cap, and was going on.
'Ronald,' she called, and he turned.