"Good-afternoon," said the voice of Tom Putnam above her.
Her short-lived joy vanished in the twinkling of an eye.
"What right has he there?" was her first thought. "I will _not_ go back!" was her second. She stepped up the ladder, disregarding the proffered hand of her lover, and stood upon the floor of the arbor.
"Welcome to the Castle in the Air," he said, extending his hand once more.
"I thought you had gone fishing," said she petulantly.
"We started," he answered; "but we broke down between here and Samoset, so we gave it up."
Patty looked about her curiously. The arbor was half a dozen feet across, with wall and ceiling of green boughs. It was a grotto dug in a huge emerald. On one side an opening had been cut in the foliage, so as to afford a view of the river, and the mountains beyond, now blue and purple with autumn hazes. The castle was securely railed in, and furnished with three or four rustic seats, besides a small table, or rather shelf, supported by a living bough. Upon this lay an open book, in which the lawyer had apparently been reading.
"I trust my cigar does not trouble you," he said: "I'll drop it if it does."
Magnetism by induction is a phenomenon no less interesting in the intellectual than in the physical world. The restless mood of Patty, her defensive attitude, began to re-act upon her companion. She unconsciously was defending herself from herself, rather than from him; while he was at once puzzled and offended by her repellence. Patty was more affected by this meeting with her lover than she realized, and her nature instinctively guarded itself against any betrayal of emotion. She affected, as many another has done, to cover her concern by a mask of indifference, and began to banter gayly.
"I would on no account have come here, had I known you were at home," she said.
"Um,"--he returned. "You and truth have one thing in common."
"I am delighted to hear it. What may that be?"
"You are both very coy when sought, and yet will often show your faces unasked."
"Thanks! That is, then, our only resemblance?"
"Oh, no! You both can say extremely disagreeable things."
"And both are very unpleasant generally, I suppose you'd like to add."
"By no means. That would be impolite to my guest."