“Isn’t there a foreman, a bailiff, whatever you call him, in these parts?”

She shook her head.

“No; we cannot afford one; so I do his work.  And very pleasant work it is, especially in fine weather.”

“And you are happy?” he asked, almost unconsciously.

Her frank eyes met his with a smile of amusement.

“Yes, quite happy,” she answered.  “Why?  Does it seem so unlikely, so unreasonable?”

“Well, it does,” he replied, as if her frankness were contagious.  “Of course, I could understand it if you did it occasionally, if you did it because you liked riding; but to be obliged, to have to go out in all weathers, it isn’t right!”

She looked at him thoughtfully.

“Yes, I suppose it seems strange to you.  I suppose most of the ladies you know are rich, and only ride to amuse themselves, and never go out when they do not want to do so.  Sir Stephen Orme—­you—­are very rich, are you not?  We, my father and I, are poor, very poor.  And if I did not look after things, if I were not my own bailiff—­Oh, well, I don’t know what would happen.”

Stafford gnawed at his moustache as he gazed at her.  The exquisitely colourless face, in which the violet eyes glowed like two twin flowers, the delicately cut lips, soft and red, the dark hair clustering at the ivory temples in wet rings, set his heart beating with a heavy pulsation that was an agony of admiration and longing—­a longing that was vague and indistinct.

“Yes, I suppose it must seem strange to you,” she said, as if she were following out the lines of her own thoughts.  “You must be accustomed to girls who are so different.”

“Yes, they’re different,” he admitted.  “Most of the women I know would be frightened to death if they were caught in such a rain as this; would be more than frightened to death if they had to ride down that hill most of ’em think they’ve done wonder if they get in at the end of a run over a fairly easy country; and none of ’em could doctor a sick sheep to save their lives.”

“Yes,” she said, dreamily.  “I’ve seen them, but only at a distance.  But I didn’t know anything about farming until I came home.”

“And do you never go away from here, go to London for a change and get a dance, and—­and all that?” he asked.

She shook her head indifferently.

“No, I never leave the dale.  I cannot.  My father could not spare me.  Has it left off raining yet?”

She went to the front of the shed and looked out.

“No, it is still pelting; please come back; it is pouring off the roof; your hair is quite wet again.”

She laughed, but she obeyed.

“I suppose that gentleman, the man in the carriage, was a friend of Sir Stephen’s, as he asked the way to your house?”

“I don’t know,” replied Stafford.  “I don’t know any of my father’s friends.  I knew very little of him until last night.”