When I reached the hammock it wanted
fifteen minutes to seven o'clock. It was too late for me to do
anything, but I was glad to be able to stay there even for a few
minutes, to breathe that air, to stand on that ground, to touch that
hammock. I did more than that. Why shouldn't I? I got into it. It
was a better one than that I had hung there. It was delightfully
comfortable. At this moment, gently swinging in that woodland
solitude, with the sweet odors of the morning all about me, I felt
myself nearer to her than I had ever been before.

But I knew I must not revel in this place too long. I was on the point
of rising to leave when I heard approaching footsteps. My breath
stopped. Was I at last to be discovered? This was what came of my
reckless security. But perhaps the person, some workman most likely,
would pass without noticing me. To remain quiet seemed the best
course, and I lay motionless.

But the person approaching turned into the little pathway. The
footsteps came nearer. I sprang from the hammock. Before me was Miss
Vincent!

What was my aspect I know not, but I have no doubt I turned fiery red.
She stopped suddenly, but she did not turn red.

"Oh, Mr. Ripley," she exclaimed, "good morning! You must excuse me. I
did not know--"

That she should have had sufficient self-possession to say good morning
amazed me. Her whole appearance, in fact, amazed me. There seemed to
be something wanting in her manner. I endeavored to get myself into
condition.

"You must be surprised," I said, "to see me here. You supposed I was
in Europe, but--"

As I spoke I made a couple of steps toward her, but suddenly stopped.
One of my coat buttons had caught in the meshes of the hammock. It was
confoundedly awkward. I tried to loosen the button, but it was badly
entangled. Then I desperately pulled at it to tear it off.

"Oh, don't do that," she said. "Let me unfasten it for you." And
taking the threads of the hammock in one of her little hands and the
button in the other, she quickly separated them. "I should think
buttons would be very inconvenient things--at least, in hammocks," she
said smiling. "You see, girls don't have any such trouble."

I could not understand her manner. She seemed to take my being there
as a matter of course.

"I must beg a thousand pardons for this--this trespass," I said.

"Trespass!" said she, with a smile. "People don't trespass on their
own land--"

"But