'It was not "well" at all,' said Hazel. 'I do not like tangles. And this was unmitigated. I could not pull out one single smooth thread, and present it for your inspection, Mr. Rollo.'
'Unpractical,' said Rollo. 'Make some statement of what you do know.'
'Statements are not precisely in my line,' said Hazel. 'And I am not the least in the habit of telling all I know.'
Hazel did not immediately answer. She sat watching the heap of acorns and the hand that was arranging them, a quiet smile upon her lips. What had she said to Josephine about "diamonds from a hand that you do not love"?whereas even acorns, from a hand that
With a sudden scarlet flush she turned away, and bending down on the other side, began to gather mosses on her own account.
'Come, Hazel,' said her companion'the tangle has got to be encountered, and I think we shall go into it most safely together.'
'I could not tell you,' she said, 'and you could not tell me. Nobody but oneself can disentangle "why" and "whether" and "what".'
Rollo cast a quick glance up at her, which probably brought him all the intelligence he wanted; for he only remarked audaciously that she 'would know better some day.'
'I could not make you understand, Mr. Rollo. And unless you understood, you would just think there could not be room in my head for a single spark of sense.'
'You don't know what I think of your head. Wellif you see a little shoot of confidence in me starting up in your mind, encourage it, Hazel!'
'Nor encourage it, of course. WellI am in a bad way.'
'Things pass the acorn stage, you know,' she said, laughing a little.
'Yes. Do you remember my having once had the honour to remark to you, that I objected to be treated as an old guardian?'
'No,' said Hazel,'you asked me if I expected to do it. But perhaps that meant the same thing in those days.'
'Perhaps it did. What do you think of it in these days?'
'Will you like to come and go chestnutting in these woods, Mr. Rollo? The Powders all say that I promised them such a day, though I am sure I do not remember it.'
'I don't remember it,' said Rollo lazily.
'As you were not here when I am said to have made the promise, I do not see how you should. But it is needful I should ask you, or Mr. Falkirk will askas he did once before upon you non- appearanceif you have offended me.'