Stafford coloured.
"So do I," he said; "but I hope it isn't true. There may be some
mistake. I don't know anything about my father's affairs--I haven't
seen him for years; I am almost a stranger to him."
She listened with a grave face, then she touched the big chestnut; but
Stafford, almost unconsciously, laid his hand on the rein nearest him.
His mouth and chin expressed the determination which now and again
surprised even his most intimate friends.
"Miss Heron, I'm afraid--" He paused, and she waited, her eyes downcast
and fixed on the horse's ears.
"I scarcely know how to put what I want to say," he said. "I'm rather
bad at explaining myself; but I--well, I hope you won't feel angry with
me because of the house, because of anything that has passed between
your father and mine--Of course I stand by him; but--well, _I_ didn't
build the confounded place--I beg your pardon! but I think it's rather
hard that you should cut me--oh, I can see by your face that you mean
to do it!--that you should regard me as a kind of enemy because--"
The usually fluent Stafford stopped helplessly as the beautiful eyes
turned slowly upon him with a slight look of wonder in them.
"Why should you mind?" she said, with almost childish innocence. "You
do not know me; we only met yesterday--we are not friends--Oh I am not
forgetting your kindness last night; oh, no!--but what can it matter to
you?"
In another woman Stafford would have suspected the question of
coquetry, of a desire to fish for the inevitable response; but looking
in those clear, guileless eyes, he could not entertain any such
suspicion.
"I beg your pardon; but it does matter very much," he retorted. "In the
first place, a man does not like being cut by a lady; and in the next,
we shall be neighbours--I'm going to stay there--" he nodded grimly at
the beautiful "little place."
"Neighbours?" she said, half absently. "It is farther off than you
think; and, besides, we know no one. We have no neighbours in that
sense--or friends. My father does not like to see anyone; we live quite
alone--"
"So I've heard--" He stopped and bit his lip; but she did not seem to
have noticed his interruption.
--"So that even if my father did not object to the house or--or--"
"My father," said Stafford with a smile.