He watched her for a second as she lightly jumped the burn and climbed the peaty slope.  Then he turned to his fishing, and when Alice looked back from the vantage-ground of the hill shoulder she saw a figure bending intently below a great pool.  She was no coquette, but she could not repress a tinge of irritation at so callous and self-absorbed a young man.  Another would have been profuse in thanks and would have accompanied her to point out the road, or in some way or other would have declared his appreciation of her presence.  He might have told, her his name, and then there would have been a pleasant informal introduction, and they could have talked freely.  If he came to Glenavelin to-morrow, she would have liked to appear as already an acquaintance of so popular a guest.

But such thoughts did not long hold their place.  She was an honest young woman, and she readily confessed that fluent manners and the air of the cavaliere servente were things she did not love.  Carelessness suited well with a frayed jacket and the companionship of a hill burn and two ragged boys.  So, comforting her pride with proverbs, she returned to Glenavelin to find the place deserted save for dogs, and in their cheering presence read idly till dinner.

CHAPTER IV

AFTERNOON IN A GARDEN

The gardens of Glenavelin have an air of antiquity beyond the dwelling, for there the modish fashions of another century have been followed with enthusiasm.  There are clipped yews and long arched avenues, bowers and summer-houses of rustic make, and a terraced lawn fringed with a Georgian parapet.  A former lord had kept peacocks innumerable, and something of the tradition still survived.  Set in the heart of hilly moorlands, it was like a cameo gem in a tartan plaid, a piece of old Vauxhall or Ranelagh in an upland vale.  Of an afternoon sleep reigned supreme.  The shapely immobile trees, the grey and crumbling stone, the lone green walks vanishing into a bosky darkness were instinct with the quiet of ages.  It needed but Lady Prue with her flounces and furbelows and Sir Pertinax with his cane and buckled shoon to re-create the ancient world before good Queen Anne had gone to her rest.

In one of the shadiest corners of a great lawn Lady Manorwater sat making tea.  Bertha, with a broad hat shading her eyes, dozed over a magazine in a deck-chair.  That morning she and Alice had broken the convention of the house and gone riding in the haughlands till lunch.  Now she suffered the penalty and dozed, but her companion was very wide awake, being a tireless creature who knew not lethargy.  Besides, there was sufficient in prospect to stir her curiosity.  Lady Manorwater had announced some twenty times that day that her nephew Lewis would come to tea, and Alice, knowing the truth of the prophecy, was prepared to receive him.