I thought there was no one here--the
curtain concealed you: I am sorry."
She shrugged her shoulders and gave him the faintest and most
condescending of bows; then, as he reached the door, she said:
"Do you think it will be moonlight to-night?"
Stafford naturally looked rather surprised at this point-blank
meteorological question.
"I shouldn't be surprised if it were," he said. "You see, this is a
very changeable climate, and as it is raining now it will probably
clear up before the evening."
"Thanks!" she said. "I am much obliged--"
"Oh, my opinion isn't worth much," he put in parenthetically, but she
went on as if he had not spoken.
--"I should be still further obliged if you would be so kind as to tell
my father--he is outside with the carriage somewhere--that I am tired
and that I would rather not go on until the cool of the evening."
"Certainly," said Stafford.
He waited a moment to see if she had any other requests, or rather
orders, and then went out and found the gentleman with the strongly
marked countenance, in the stable-yard beside the carriage to which the
hostler and the help were putting fresh horses.
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