' said Wych Hazel, with sudden
curiosity.

'Dodge the stones, of course!' Rollo answered quietly.

Hazel gleamed up at him from under her hat, her lips in a
curl.

'That is only what you would have _tried_ to do,' she said. But
then Miss Wych subsided and fell back into the closest rapt
attention to the beauties of the landscape and the evening
sky.

'The only time,' Rollo went on, 'when the least annoyance
would be possible, is after work hours, or just at noon when
they are out for dinner. At all other times the whole
population is shut up in the mills, and the street is empty.'

'Was it your peaches then after all?' said the girl suddenly.
'Or did she pray us through?'

Rollo gave her one of the bright, sweet smiles he sometimes
gave to his old nurse.

'How do I know?' he said. 'I think--peaches were sweet. And I
don't believe Gyda ever prays in vain.'

Of course, such an afternoon, everybody had been out; happily
the hour was so late that few were left on the road; but Wych
could not escape all encounters.

'Your days are numbered, Dane Rollo!' called out Mr. Kingsland
as he went by. 'Coffee and pistols at four to-morrow morning!--
And if my shot fails, there are ten more to follow. The strong
probability is that Miss Kennedy beholds us both for the last
time!' Which melancholy statement was honoured with a soft
irrepressible laugh that it was a pity Mr. Kingsland would not
wait to hear.

Then before Wych Hazel had brought her face into order, a
sharp racking trot came down a cross-road, and Kitty Fisher
reined up at her side.

'I vow!' she said,--'you look jolly here! The Viking must have
been exerting himself. So! you are the girl that never
flirts!'

'What of it?' said Wych Hazel, with cool gravity.

'O nothing,--nothing in the world!' said Miss Fisher. 'I've
come to get a lesson, that's all. For real instruction in the
art, commend me to your cream-faced people who never do it.'

'Nobody ever saw cream the colour of _my_ face,' said Wych Hazel
good-humouredly. 'It is yours, Kitty, that always deserves the
comparison.'

Here Rollo, who had been sheering about for a minute on his
springy bay, suddenly came up between the two girls and kept
the brown mare too far to the left to permit another flank
movement to out-general him.

'I should like somebody to explain to me,' he said, addressing
Kitty, 'what flirting is. I have never been able to come to a
clear understanding of what is meant b