"Yes," she said, "but what chance shall we have to talk there?"
"We can lose the field," he said, "and ride back over the moors alone."
Arthur Grenvil had taken the mastership of the North Cornwall Foxhounds and persuaded Trent to follow them. The American had added a couple of better-bred faster horses to his hack and now enjoyed the gallop after a fox as much as any hardened foxhunter of them all.
A fox was discovered almost immediately when the Trenewth covers were drawn and got well away making in a westerly direction for the Wadebridge road. Daphne and Trent made a pretense of following but soon drew apart from the rest. The music of hounds became fainter and they turned back to the moors.
"You might have told me," she said reproachfully.
"I didn't know," he answered, "I only realized when your father spoke that it was more or less a command."
"My father may be the lord-lieutenant of the county," she said, "but he has no power to send a man away if the man doesn't want to go."
"Can you think I want to go?" he demanded.
"I only know you are not going to stay."