o, had bowed as they rode by. 'Mr. Rollo, is it
a secret, what you said to that child? It looks to me as if
she had brought the people out to look at you.'

'Will you ride?' said he. 'Let us have a canter first.'

It was a pretty swift canter, and the two had flown over a
good deal of ground before Rollo drew bridle again on coming
out into the main road.

'Now,' he said, 'we can talk. There is no secret about
anything. The girl asked, at Gyda's, how soon we were going
away? I answered, in half an hour. Whereupon she begged very
urgently that we would delay and not get to the mills till _she_
had been there; and darted away as you saw.'

'Impressive power of peaches!' said Hazel, with a laugh.
'Commend my penetration. I wish all our waste baskets of fruit
could be emptied out in that Hollow, and so be of some use. It
would be fun to send Mr. Morton's own grapes'--but there she
stopped.

'I am afraid you are mistaken,' said Rollo, gravely. 'The
manner and accent of the girl made me apprehend danger of some
annoyance--which I think she went to prevent. The road being a
_cul de sac_, she knew, and they knew, we must come back that
way. Gyda will find out all about it; but she said it meant
mischief.'

'Mischief? To us?'

'Yes. They are very degraded, and I suppose embittered, by
their way of life; and do not like to see people taking their
pleasure as we are doing.'

'_That_ was what they were out for! Mr. Falkirk may well say my
eyes are ignorant,' said the girl, thoughtfully. 'But Mr.
Rollo--is this the only way to---- What do ordinary people call
your friend?'

'Gyda? The name is Boerresen--contracted by vulgar usage to
Borsen.'

'Well, is this the only way you can get to her cottage?'

'The only way; except by a scramble over the hills and fields
where no way is. I fancy you are mistaken again, however, in
your conclusions from what you have seen this evening. I do
not think they were out to do us mischief. Their attitude did
not strike me as like that. I think Truedchen had been
beforehand with them.'

'And does Mrs. Boerresen like to have you come and go through
the Hollow, knowing the people?'

'I never heard of the least annoyance to any one there before.
I can only surmise that the sight of a lady, where no lady
ever comes, excited the spite of some children perhaps. And
they might have expressed their spite by throwing a few
stones. _That_ I half expected.'

'What would you have done then?