His step had evidently not been heard on the soft, springy turf, and he was fast lessening the distance between them, some curiosity now mingling with his desire for information, when she turned out of the lane and passed through a swing gate. Here she paused for a moment, looking back, and their eyes met.
Yes; just such a face as he, a dreamer of dreams, had sometimes pictured to himself, but hardly hoped to see in the world of reality. A face too grave and troubled for her years--she looked barely eighteen--but how beautiful with its clear, steadfast eyes and general expression so simple, frank, girlish, and, at the same time, so intelligent and thoughtful! She was regarding him with a surprised, questioning look, which reminded him that he was gazing too pertinaciously.
A little consciously he lifted his hat and asked: "Can you direct me to the Priory?"
"The Priory?" she repeated in a low voice, her eyes fixed more intently upon him, and her hand tightening on the gate.
"Mr. Verschoyle's place. I was directed at the railway station, but do not feel sure that----"
"Whom do you want to see there?" she put in abruptly--almost ungraciously.
Nor was the tone assumed; this was not the girl to affect the brusquerie of unconventionality any more than the suavity of conventionality--it was rather that of one in deep anxiety, and unaccustomed to veil her thoughts.
"On--business?"--the expression of dread, or whatever it was, deepening in her face, white now to the lips; as, on the impulse of the moment, she pressed back the gate as though to bar the way.
"No," he murmured. To have brought such a look to such a face!
She still eyed him with the same unquiet scrutiny, as though debating something in her mind; then hurriedly asked: "But why? Where do you come from?"
He might very well have asked what interest his relations with Verschoyle could have for her; but he felt that there was some grave reason underlying her anxiety, and was not inclined to take offence. Moreover, there was no necessity for mystery on his side; and, therefore, he might as well reply openly and directly to her question.
"Are you a friend of his? Mr. Verschoyle is my brother"; still a little hesitatingly, and, as it were, on the defensive.