Hastings was suddenly overcome with the shyness of youth. He held out his hand, and said, "I'm awfully glad to have met you," and fled.
Victoria, who had looked on with a curious mixture of feelings, turned to
Austen.
"That was a real tribute," she said. "Is this the way you affect everybody whom you meet?"
They were standing almost alone. The sun was nearing the western hills beyond the river, and people had for some time been wending their way towards the field where the horses were tied. He did not answer her question, but asked one instead.
"Will you let me drive you home?"
"Do you think you deserve to, after the shameful manner in which you have behaved?"
"I'm quite sure that I don't deserve to," he answered, still looking down at her.
"If you did deserve to, being a woman, I probably shouldn't let you," said Victoria, flashing a look upwards; "as it is, you may."
His face lighted, but she halted in the grass, with her hands behind her, and stared at him with a puzzled expression.
"I'm sure you're a dangerous man," she declared. "First you take in poor little Hastings, and now you're trying to take me in."