“Oh, quite, thank you,” she answered.  “I slept like the dead.  I feel—­fit for anything.”

“That’s right,” he said briefly.  “We will have some breakfast before we start business.”

“Oh, you have been waiting!” she exclaimed with compunction.  “I’m so sorry.  I’m not generally so lazy.”

“Don’t apologize!” he said.  “You’ve done exactly what I hoped you’d do.  Sit down, won’t you?  Take the end of the table!”

His manner was friendly though curt.  Her embarrassment fell from her as she complied.  They sat, facing one another, and, the light being upon him, she gave him a steady look.  He was not nearly so much like Guy as she had thought the previous night, though undoubtedly there was a strong resemblance.  On a closer inspection she did not think him handsome, but the keen alertness of him attracted her.  He looked as if physical endurance were a quality he had brought very near to perfection.  He had the stamp of the gladiator upon him.  He had wrestled against odds.

After a moment or two he turned his eyes unexpectedly to hers.  It was a somewhat disconcerting habit of his.

“A satisfactory result, I hope?” he said.

She did not look away.  “I don’t consider myself a good character reader,” she said.  “But you are certainly not so much like Guy as I thought at first sight.”

“Thank you,” he said.  “I must confess I prefer to be like myself.”

She laughed a little.  “It was absurd of me to make such a mistake.  But yours was the only face that looked in the least familiar in all that crowd.  I was so glad to see it.”

“You have never been in this country before?” he asked.

She shook her head.  “Never.  I feel a dreadful outsider at present.  But I shall soon learn.’

“Do you ride?” he said.

Her eyes kindled.  “Yes.  I was keen on hunting in England.  That will be a help, won’t it?”

“It would be,” he said, “if you stayed.”

“I have come to stay,” she said with assurance.

“Wait a bit!” said Burke Ranger.

His manner rather than his words checked her.  She felt again that cold dread pressing against her heart.  She turned from the subject as one seeking escape.

She ate a good breakfast almost in spite of herself.  Ranger insisted upon it, and since he was evidently hungry himself it seemed churlish not to keep him company.  He told her a little about the country, while they ate, but he strenuously avoided all things personal, and she felt compelled to follow his lead.  He imposed a certain restraint upon her, and even when he rose from the table at length with the air of a man about to face the inevitable, she did not feel it to be wholly removed.

She got up also and watched him fill his pipe with something of her former embarrassment.  She expected him to light it when he had finished, but he did not.  He put it in his pocket, and somewhat abruptedly turned to her.