He leant against one of the posts which supported the shed, and gazed

at her with more intense interest than any other woman had ever aroused

in him.

"Isn't there a foreman, a bailiff, whatever you call him, in these

parts?"

She shook her head.

"No; we cannot afford one; so I do his work. And very pleasant work it

is, especially in fine weather."

"And you are happy?" he asked, almost unconsciously.

Her frank eyes met his with a smile of amusement.

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"Yes, quite happy," she answered. "Why? Does it seem so unlikely, so

unreasonable?"

"Well, it does," he replied, as if her frankness were contagious. "Of

course, I could understand it if you did it occasionally, if you did it

because you liked riding; but to be obliged, to have to go out in all

weathers, it isn't right!"

She looked at him thoughtfully.

"Yes, I suppose it seems strange to you. I suppose most of the ladies

you know are rich, and only ride to amuse themselves, and never go out

when they do not want to do so. Sir Stephen Orme--you--are very rich,

are you not? We, my father and I, are poor, very poor. And if I did not

look after things, if I were not my own bailiff--Oh, well, I don't know

what would happen."

Stafford gnawed at his moustache as he gazed at her. The exquisitely

colourless face, in which the violet eyes glowed like two twin flowers,

the delicately cut lips, soft and red, the dark hair clustering at the

ivory temples in wet rings, set his heart beating with a heavy

pulsation that was an agony of admiration and longing--a longing that

was vague and indistinct.

"Yes, I suppose it must seem strange to you," she said, as if she were

following out the lines of her own thoughts. "You must be accustomed to

girls who are so different."

"Yes, they're different," he admitted. "Most of the women I know would

be frightened to death if they were caught in such a rain as this;

would be more than frightened to death if they had to ride down that

hill most of 'em think they've done wonder if they get in at the end of

a run over a fairly easy country; and none of 'em could doctor a sick

sheep to save their lives."

"Yes," she said, dreamily. "I've seen them, but only at a distance. But

I didn't know anything about farming until I came home."




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