blood hummed back: "But it's glorious!"
and she sped on till she saw that Owen had caught sight of her and was
striding back in her direction.

Then she stopped and waited, flushed and laughing, her hands clasped
against the letter in her breast.

"No, I'm not mad," she called out; "but there's something in the air
today--don't you feel it?--And I wanted to have a little talk with you,"
she added as he came up to her, smiling at him and linking her arm in
his.

He smiled back, but above the smile she saw the shade of anxiety which,
for the last two months, had kept its fixed line between his handsome
eyes.

"Owen, don't look like that! I don't want you to!" she said imperiously.

He laughed. "You said that exactly like Effie. What do you want me to
do? To race with you as I do Effie? But I shouldn't have a show!" he
protested, still with the little frown between his eyes.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To the kennels. But there's not the least need. The vet has seen Garry
and he's all right. If there's anything you wanted to tell me----"

"Did I say there was? I just came out to meet you--I wanted to know if
you'd had good sport."

The shadow dropped on him again. "None at all. The fact is I didn't try.
Jean and I have just been knocking about in the woods. I wasn't in a
sanguinary mood."

They walked on with the same light gait, so nearly of a height that
keeping step came as naturally to them as breathing. Anna stole another
look at the young face on a level with her own.

"You DID say there was something you wanted to tell me," her step-son
began after a pause.

"Well, there is." She slackened her pace involuntarily, and they came to
a pause and stood facing each other under the limes.

"Is Darrow coming?" he asked.

She seldom blushed, but at the question a sudden heat suffused her. She
held her head high.

"Yes: he's coming. I've just heard. He arrives to-morrow. But that's
not----" She saw her blunder and tried to rectify it. "Or rather, yes,
in a way it is my reason for wanting to speak to you----"

"Because he's coming?"

"Because he's not yet here."

"It's about him, then?"

He looked at her kindly, half-humourously, an almost fraternal wisdom in
his smile.

"About----? No, no: I meant that I wanted to speak today because it's
our last day alone together."

"Oh, I see." He had slipped his hands into the pockets of his tweed
shooting jacket and lounged along at her side, his ey