Through this scattering of humanity the riders went at a gentle, even trot; the horses pacing almost in step, the stirrups as near together as they could be.  As they came to the thickest of this crowd of spectators, Rollo courteously raised his hat to them.  There was at first no answer, then a murmur, then two or three old hats were waved in the air.  Again Rollo saluted them, and in two minutes more the mills were passed.  The road lay empty and quiet between the high banks, on which the soft twilight was beginning to settle down.

‘I like that,’ said Wych Hazel, impulsively, forgetting her shyness—­she, too, had bowed as they rode by.  ’Mr. Rollo, is it a secret, what you said to that child?  It looks to me as if she had brought the people out to look at you.’

‘Will you ride?’ said he.  ‘Let us have a canter first.’

It was a pretty swift canter, and the two had flown over a good deal of ground before Rollo drew bridle again on coming out into the main road.

‘Now,’ he said, ’we can talk.  There is no secret about anything.  The girl asked, at Gyda’s, how soon we were going away?  I answered, in half an hour.  Whereupon she begged very urgently that we would delay and not get to the mills till she had been there; and darted away as you saw.’

‘Impressive power of peaches!’ said Hazel, with a laugh.  ’Commend my penetration.  I wish all our waste baskets of fruit could be emptied out in that Hollow, and so be of some use.  It would be fun to send Mr. Morton’s own grapes’—­but there she stopped.

‘I am afraid you are mistaken,’ said Rollo, gravely.  ’The manner and accent of the girl made me apprehend danger of some annoyance—­which I think she went to prevent.  The road being a cul de sac, she knew, and they knew, we must come back that way.  Gyda will find out all about it; but she said it meant mischief.’

‘Mischief?  To us?’

’Yes.  They are very degraded, and I suppose embittered, by their way of life; and do not like to see people taking their pleasure as we are doing.’

’That was what they were out for!  Mr. Falkirk may well say my eyes are ignorant,’ said the girl, thoughtfully.  ’But Mr. Rollo—­is this the only way to——­ What do ordinary people call your friend?’

’Gyda?  The name is Boerresen—­contracted by vulgar usage to Borsen.’

‘Well, is this the only way you can get to her cottage?’

’The only way; except by a scramble over the hills and fields where no way is.  I fancy you are mistaken again, however, in your conclusions from what you have seen this evening.  I do not think they were out to do us mischief.  Their attitude did not strike me as like that.  I think Truedchen had been beforehand with them.’

’And does Mrs. Boerresen like to have you come and go through the Hollow, knowing the people?’

’I never heard of the least annoyance to any one there before.  I can only surmise that the sight of a lady, where no lady ever comes, excited the spite of some children perhaps.  And they might have expressed their spite by throwing a few stones. That I half expected.’