ble to
pretend she had not seen him, or to go on without waiting for him to
catch her up. Indeed, the moment he caught sight of her he waved his
hand and called out, "I thought I should catch you." He then came up
with a smile upon his face, and no apparent intention of apologising for
his obvious pursuit of her.

What was the right attitude to take up towards a man who behaved like
that? Cicely blushed, and felt both surprised and annoyed. But she was
powerless to convey a hint of those feelings to him, and all he knew was
that she had blushed.

"You shouldn't have run away from me like that," he said, as he shook
hands with her and looked her straight in the face. "I shan't do you any
harm. We will go back this way"; and he walked on at a fairly smart rate
by the way she had been going, and left her to adapt her pace to his,
which she did, with the disgusted feeling that she was ambling along at
an undignified trot.

She was aware that if she opened her mouth she would say just the one
thing that she did not want to say, so she kept it closed, but was not
saved by so doing, because he immediately said it for her. "How did I
know where to find you? Well, I guessed you didn't expect to be spied
under that tree, and that you'd keep away for a bit. I didn't want that,
because I had come over on purpose to see you. So I cast my eye round
the country--I've an eye for country--saw where you would be likely to
go and the place to intercept you. So now you know all about it."

This was a little too much. Cicely found her tongue. "Thank you," she
said, with dignity, "I didn't want to know all about it," and then felt
like a fool.

"Then you have something you didn't want," he replied coolly. "But we
won't quarrel; there's no time. Do you know what I think about you and
about this place?"

He looked down at her and waited for an answer; and an answer had to be
given. She was not quite prepared, or it would be more accurate to say
that she hardly dared, to say, "No, and I don't want to," so she
compromised weakly on "No."

"Well, I'll tell you. It seems to me just Paradise, this lovely,
peaceful, luxurious English country, after the places I've been to and
the life I've led. And as for you, you pretty little pink and white
rose, you're the goddess that lives in the heart of it. You're the
prettiest, most graceful creature on God's earth, and you're in the
right setting."

Cicely felt like a helpless rabbit fascinated b