She began to feel driven, and her brows knit as she said: "I think you are very--obstinate, Mr. Orme."
"That describes me exactly," he said, cheerfully. "I'm a perfect mule
when I like, and I'm liking it all I know at this moment."
"It's absurd--it's ridiculous, as I said," she murmured, half angrily,
half laughingly, "and I can't think why you offered, why you want
to--to help me!"
"Never mind!" said Stafford, his heart beating with anticipatory
triumph; for he knew that the woman who hesitates is gained. "Perhaps I
want to get some lessons in farming on the cheap, or--"
--"Perhaps you really want to help the poor girl who, though she is a
lady, has to do the work of a farmer's daughter," she said, in a low
voice. "Oh, it is very kind of you, but--"
"Then I'll come over to-morrow an hour earlier than this, and you shall
show me how to count the sheep, or whatever you do with them," he put
in, quickly.
"But I was going to refuse--very gratefully, of course--but to
refuse!"
"You couldn't; you couldn't be so unkind! I'll ride a hunter I've got;
he's rather stiffer than Adonis, and better up to rough work. I will
come to the stream where we first met and wait for you--shall I?"
He said all this as if the matter were settled; and with the sensation
of being driven still more strongly upon her, she raised her eyes to
his with a yielding expression in them, with that touch of imploration
which lurks in a woman's eyes and about the corners of her lips when
for the first time she surrenders her will to a man.
"I do not know what to say. It is absurd--it is--wrong. I don't
understand why--. Ah, well," she sighed with an air of relief, "you
will tire of it very quickly--after a few hours--"
"All right. We'll leave it at that," he said, with an exasperating air
of cheerful confidence. "It is a bargain, Miss Heron. Shall we shake
hands on it?"
He held out his hand with the smile which few men, and still fewer
women, could resist; and she tried to smile in response; but as his
strong hand closed over her small one, a faint look of doubt, almost of
trouble, was palpable in her violet eyes and on her lips. She drew her
hand away--and it had to be drawn, for he released it only slowly and
reluctantly--and without a word she left the shed.