"I--er--yes," he stammered at random.
"You--er--what?"
Positively, she was laughing at him! He, Maitland the exquisite, Mad
Maitland the imperturbable, was being laughed at by a mere child, a
girl scarcely out of her teens. He glanced upward, caught her eye
a-gleam with merriment, and looked away with much vain dignity.
"I was saying," he manufactured, "that I did not mind the wetting in
the least. I'm happy to be of service."
"You weren't saying anything of the sort," she contradicted calmly.
"However...." She paused significantly.
Maitland experienced an instantaneous sensation as of furtive guilt,
decidedly the reverse of comfortable. He shuffled uneasily. There was a
brief silence, on her part expectant, on his, blank. His mental
attitude remained hopeless: for some mysterious reason his nonchalance
had deserted him in the hour of his supremest need; not in all his
experience did he remember anything like this--as awkward.
The river purled indifferently about his calves; a vagrant breeze
disturbed the tree-tops and died of sheer lassitude; Time plodded on
with measured stride. Then, abruptly, full-winged inspiration was born
out of the chaos of his mind. Listening intently, he glanced with
covert suspicion at the bridge: it proved untenanted, inoffensive of
mien; nor arose there any sound of hoof or wheel upon the highway.
Again he looked up at the girl; and found her in thoughtful mood,
frowning, regarding him steadily beneath level brows.
He assumed a disarming levity of demeanor, smiling winningly. "There's
only one way," he suggested--not too archly--and extended his arms.
"Indeed?" She considered him with pardonable dubiety.
Instantly his purpose became as adamant.
"I must carry you. It's the only way."
"Oh, indeed no! I--couldn't impose upon you. I'm--very heavy, you
know--"
"Never mind," firmly insistent. "You can't stay here all night, of
course."
"But are you sure?" (She was yielding!) "I don't like to--"
He shook his head, careful to restrain the twitching corners of his
lips.
"It will take but a moment," he urged gravely. "And I'll be quite
careful."
"Well--" She perceived that, if not right, he was stubborn; and with a
final small gesture of deprecation, weakly surrendered. "I'm sorry to
be such a nuisance," she murmured, rising and gathering skirts about
her.