Part 5 (1/2)

At the top of the aisle they came to the pavilion, a small white marble building in the Cla.s.sic style, standing in the middle of a broad glade.

As they went into it, Olivia said wistfully: ”It's a pity I couldn't have tea sent here.”

”I did. At least I brought it,” said Grey, waving his hand towards a basket which stood on the table. ”I knew you'd be happier for tea.”

”No one has ever been so thoughtful of me as you are,” she said, gazing at him with grateful, troubled eyes.

”Let's hope that your luck is changing,” he said gravely, gazing at her with eyes no less troubled.

Then Melchisidec scratched at the door and mewed. Olivia let him in.

Purring in the friendliest way, he rubbed his head against Grey's leg. He never treated Lord Loudwater with such friendliness.

William Roper chose a tree about forty yards from the pavilion and set his gun against the trunk. Then he filled and lit his pipe, leaned back comfortably against the trunk, hidden by the fringe of undergrowth, and, with his eyes on the door of the pavilion, waited. For Grey and Olivia, never dreaming of this patient watcher, the minutes flew; they had so many things to tell one another, so many questions to ask. At least Grey had; Olivia, for the most part, listened without comment, unless the flush which waxed and waned should be considered comment, to the things he told her about herself and the many ways in which she affected him.

For William Roper the minutes dragged; he was eager to start briskly up the royal road to Fortune. He was a slow smoker and he smoked a strong, slow-burning twist; but he had nearly emptied the screw of paper which held it before they came out of the door of the pavilion.

It was a still evening, but some drift of air had carried the rank smoke from William Roper's pipe into the glade, and it hung there. Colonel Grey had not taken five steps before his nostrils were a.s.sailed by it.

”d.a.m.n!” he said softly.

”What's the matter?” said Olivia.

She was too deeply absorbed in Grey for her senses to be alert, and the reek of William Roper's twist had reached her nostrils, but not her brain.

”There's some one about,” he said. ”Can't you smell his vile tobacco?”

”Bother!” said Olivia softly, and she frowned. They walked quietly on.

Grey was careful not to look about him with any show of earnestness, for there was nothing to be gained by letting the watcher know that they had perceived his presence. Indeed, he would have seen nothing, for the undergrowth between him and the glade was too thin to form a good screen, and William Roper was now behind the tree-trunk.

Thirty yards down the broad aisle Grey said in a low voice: ”This is an infernal nuisance!”

”Why?” said Olivia.

”If it comes to Loudwater's ears, he'll make himself devilishly unpleasant to you.”

”He can't make himself more unpleasant than he does,” she said, in a tone of quiet cert.i.tude and utter indifference. ”But why shouldn't I have tea with you in the pavilion? It's what it's there for.”

”All the same, Loudwater will make an infernal fuss about it, if it gets to his ears. He'll bully you worse than ever,” he said in an unhappy tone, frowning heavily.

”What do I care about Loudwater--now?” she said, smiling at him, and she brushed her fingertips across the back of his hand.

He caught her fingers and held them for a moment, but the frown did not lift.

”The nuisance is that, whoever it was, he had been there a long time,” he said gravely. ”The glade was full of the reek of his vile tobacco.

Suppose he saw me kiss you in the drive here and then followed us?”

”Well, if you will do such wicked things in the open air--” she said, smiling.

”It isn't a laughing matter, I'm afraid,” he said rather heavily, and frowning.