confronted the person whom in his doggy heart he took for an enemy,
awoke Toni to a sense of the position.

"Jock! Come here! _Jock_, do you hear me?" Her tone showed Jock that,
much as appearances were against the intruder, his canine instinct had
been at fault; and he returned, unwillingly, to his mistress, wearing
the slightly sulky look which an intelligent dog wears when he has made
an unavoidable mistake.

"Mrs. Rose, I assure you I did not mean to frighten you." Mr. Dowson
emerged rather hastily from the shadow of the bushes, and advanced, hat
in hand. "I--I am really most awfully sorry if I have startled you.
I ... I would have called out sooner, but I trusted you would not
perceive me."

"Mr. Dowson!" Toni's voice was frankly dismayed. "What are you doing
here? Were you coming to see me?"

"I--I really don't know." Mr. Dowson moved a step forward and then gave
an involuntary jump as Jock growled mildly, under his breath as it were.

"But--be quiet, Jock--it's so late--and----"

"Oh, I know it's late." Suddenly Mr. Dowson lost his head. "But I
couldn't stop away. I--I've been here heaps of times--at
night--generally I've stopped outside the gates, but once or twice I had
to come in.... I--I couldn't stop away. It drove me mad to think of you
here--and I had to come, just to be near you, if I couldn't see
you--speak to you."

"But----" Toni began, but he cut her short.

"Oh, you can't understand, of course! You've never understood--you've
never known how much I've loved you--oh, it's no use being angry! I know
quite well I've no right to speak. You're married, a great lady now, by
all I hear--but I love you--Toni--oh, my God, how I love you!" The sweat
stood in great drops on his brow as he hurried on, a certain rough
eloquence in his words. "After all, I'm a man, I've a right to love
you--or any woman--and I've loved you now for years--it's not something
new, just a passing attraction--it's part of me, something in my very
bones, as near me as breathing or sleeping or thinking--I'm simply eaten
up with love for you, Toni. You're my life, my everything. I'd die for
you, I'd go through fire end water for you, I'd do anything in the
world, bad or good, dishonourable or splendid, if you'd be kind to me,
smile on me, let me kiss your little feet...."

Toni, swept off her balance by his passion, said nothing, but stood
opposite to him, panting a little; and after a second he went on with
his wild confession