He watched her for a moment in silence, wondering curiously whether the
faint increase of color in her face was due to his unexpected
appearance. When he spoke at last, there was a certain constraint in
voice and manner, as though back of his apparent cordiality there lurked
sundry misgivings as to the wisdom of his present course, and a sense of
irritation at the failure of his own nature to grasp completely the
subtile organization of his companion. "Do you always choose such an
early hour as this for your daily rambles?" he asked, studying with a
half-tender scrutiny the irregular, sensitive face before him.
The girl faltered, and raised her eyes to meet his glance. They were
strange, light eyes,--not beautiful, but very rare in their peculiar
tint of green-gray glass. They looked straight before them, brilliant
and baffling. "Not always," she said, with lingering emphasis, "but very
often."
Her voice was clear and sweet, though it lacked the cultivated
modulations of other tones he knew and loved. There was something in its
cadences that recalled to him the flute-notes of the English
white-throat, a melody that attracts only to disappoint. He smiled
softly at her transparent reticence, and followed up his question. "Is
it because the freshness of the morning tempts you out?" he said.
"Or"--dropping his voice with sudden meaning--"is it because you like to
be alone?"
She hesitated, as though seeking some form of words that would
negatively express what was passing in her mind, yet not give her
thoughts too clear a reading. There was a touch both of defiance and of
expectation in the quick turn of her head and the gleam of her half-shut
eyes. "I rather think it is because I like to be alone," she said, at
length.
He bowed slightly, and his face, accustomed to alter its expression with
facile ease, assumed a look of well-bred regret, tempered with the
faintest tinge of amusement. "Then for once you have failed of your
object," he whispered apologetically. "But let me at least plead"--here
the amused expression deepened, and a gleam of malice brightened his
keen eyes--"let me at least plead that I have sinned in ignorance."