'familiarities,' as you are pleased to term them, being more
acceptable to a lady than the attentions of the Dop Doctor."

Saxham started as though an adder had flashed its fangs through his boot.
A rush of savage blood darkened his face; his hand quivered near the butt
of his revolver, and his eyes blazed murder. But with a frightful effort
he controlled himself, lifted his hat slightly to Lynette, turned and
leaped back to the stone he had quitted, strode through the reed-beds, and
plunged back into the tangled boscage. That he did not continue his walk,
but turned back towards the town, was plain, for his retreat could be
traced by the shaking of the thick bush and the high grasses through which
he forced his way. It did him good to battle even with these vegetable
forces, and the hooked thorns that tore his clothes and rent his flesh
left nothing like the traces that those few words of dismissal, spoken by
a girl's voice, and the hateful taunt that had followed, had left upon his
heart.

It was over. Over--over, the brief, sweet season of hope. Nothing was left
now but his loyalty to the friend who believed in him. If that man had
not stood between Saxham and his despair, Gueldersdorp would have got back
her Dop Doctor that night. For the Hospital stores included a cherished
case or two of Martell and Kinahan, and all these things were under
Saxham's hand.

The heavy footsteps crashed out of hearing. The startled finches settled
down again, except at that point, higher up on the opposite bank, to which
Beauvayse's attention had first been directed. There the little birds yet
hovered like a cloud of butterflies, but, practised scout as Beauvayse
was, he paid no heed to their distress. She had declared for him. The
Doctor's discomfiture enhanced his triumph. Gad! how like an angry buffalo
the fellow was! The sort of beast who would put down his head and charge
at a stone wall as confidently as at a mud one. It was a confounded
nuisance that he had seen what he had seen. But a man who had eventually
cut so poor a figure, had been snubbed so thoroughly and completely, might
prefer to hold his tongue. And if he did not, here in Gueldersdorp, while
no letters got through, while no news filtered in from the big humming
world outside, it would be possible to carry things bravely off for a long
time. He had told Bingo, to be sure, about--about Lessie. But Bingo,
though he might bluster and barge about dishonourable conduct