"I promise; only, I'm goin'."

Suddenly she dimpled and broke into her broad smile.

"Mr. Derek, d'you know what they say--they say you're in love. You was
seen in th' orchard. Ah! 'tis all right for you and her! But if any one
kiss and hug ME, I got to go!"

Derek drew back among the graves, as if he had been struck with a whip.

She looked up at him with coaxing sweetness.

"Don't you mind me, Mr. Derek, and don't you stay here neither. If they
saw you here with me, they'd say: 'Aw--look! Endangerin' another young
man--poor young man!' Good mornin', Mr. Derek!"

The rogue eyes followed him gravely, then once more began examining the
grass, and the toe of her boot again began kicking a little hole. But
Derek did not look back.

CHAPTER XI

It is in the nature of men and angels to pursue with death such birds as
are uncommon, such animals as are rare; and Society had no use for one
like Tod, so uncut to its pattern as to be practically unconscious of
its existence. Not that he had deliberately turned his back on anything;
he had merely begun as a very young man to keep bees. The better to do
that he had gone on to the cultivation of flowers and fruit, together
with just enough farming as kept his household in vegetables, milk,
butter, and eggs. Living thus amongst insects, birds, cows, and the
peace of trees, he had become queer. His was not a very reflective mind,
it distilled but slowly certain large conclusions, and followed intently
the minute happenings of his little world. To him a bee, a bird, a
flower, a tree was well-nigh as interesting as a man; yet men, women,
and especially children took to him, as one takes to a Newfoundland dog,
because, though capable of anger, he seemed incapable of contempt, and
to be endowed with a sort of permanent wonder at things. Then, too, he
was good to look at, which counts for more than a little in the scales
of our affections; indeed, the slight air of absence in his blue eyes
was not chilling, as is that which portends a wandering of its owner on
his own business. People recognized that it meant some bee or other
in that bonnet, or elsewhere, some sound or scent or sight of life,
suddenly perceived--always of life! He had often been observed gazing
with peculiar gravity at a dead flower, bee, bird, or beetle, and, if
spoken to at such a moment, would say, "Gone!" touching a wing or
petal with his finger. To conceive of what happened after death did
not apparently