Part 40 (1/2)

It was a spot in fairyland.

They came to a path that led steeply downwards, and Bunny stopped. ”I'll leave my animal here,” he said.

Toby did not wait. She plunged straight down the steep descent. When he rejoined her, she was at the water's edge. She knelt upon a bed of moss and thrust her hands into the clear water. He stood above her for a moment or two, then knelt beside her and took the wet wrists very gently into a firm hold. She made a faint resistance, but finally yielded. He looked down at the hands nervously clenched in his grasp. He was older in that moment, more manly, than she had ever seen him.

”What's the matter, little girl?” he said softly. ”What are you afraid of?”

”Nothing,” said Toby instantly, and threw up her chin in the old dauntless way.

He looked at her closely. ”Sure?”

The blue eyes met his with defiance. ”Of course I'm sure. That horrid trap upset me, that's all.”

He continued to look at her steadily. ”That isn't why you won't have anything to say to me,” he said.

Her colour rose under his gaze, but she would not avoid it. ”Does it matter why?” she said.

”It does when I want to know,” he answered. Again his look went to her hands. ”How the little brute scored you! So much for grat.i.tude!”

”You don't expect grat.i.tude from a creature wild with fright,” said Toby.

She spoke rather breathlessly, and he saw that she was on the verge of tears again. He got up and drew her to her feet.

”Let's walk for a bit!” he said.

She stood as one in doubt and he felt that she was trembling.

”I say--don't!” he said suddenly and winningly. ”I won't do anything you don't like, I swear. You shan't be bothered. Can't you trust me?”

She made a little movement towards him, and he put his arm round her shoulders. They turned along the greensward side by side.

”It was awfully nice of you to come,” Bunny said in that new gentle voice of his. ”I didn't mean you to get there first, but old Bishop is so long-winded I couldn't get away.”

”It didn't matter,” said Toby with a nervous little smile.

”It did to me,” said Bunny. ”It would have saved you that anyway.”

”But you'd have killed the hare,” she said.

”Not if he hadn't been damaged,” he said. ”I'm not a brute. I don't kill for the sake of killing.”

She looked incredulous. ”Most men do. Don't you hunt? Don't you shoot?”

”Oh, you're talking of sport!” said Bunny.

”Yes, it's called sport,” said Toby, an odd little vibration in her voice. ”It's just a name for killing things, isn't it?”

Bunny considered the matter. ”No, that's not fair,” he decided. ”Sport is sport. But I prefer to walk up my game and I never countenance digging out a fox. That's sport.”

”There are very few sportsmen in the world,” said Toby.