Their loud
barking changed to sullen growls as she approached; and, motioning them
to be still, she stopped and gazed at Stafford, who stepped out into
the moonlight.
She said not a word, but, as she recognised him, a faint colour came
into the ivory pallor of her cheek and an expression of surprise in the
dark, fearless eyes.
Stafford raised his cap.
"I am very sorry!" he said. "I am afraid you must think me a great
nuisance; this is the second time I have been guilty of trespass."
She was silent for a moment, not with shyness, but as if she were
noticing the change in his dress, and wondering how he came to be in
evening-clothes, and where he had come from. The expression was one of
simple girlish curiosity, which softened in a delicious way the general
pride and hauteur of her face.
"You are not trespassing," she said, and the voice sounded very sweet
and musical after the din of the dogs. "There is public right of way
along this road."
"I am immensely relieved," said Stafford. "It looks so unfrequented,
that I was afraid it was private, and that I had made another blunder;
all the same, I am very sorry that I should have disturbed you and made
the dogs kick up such a row.
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