"
"Stop! I must know about it. Tell me; how did it happen?"
"I can't talk about it to you."
"Why not? Do you think I condone this outrage? Do you think I can
support such means of warfare? You do not know me, Mr. Shaw; you do
not know an Englishwoman's love of fairness."
"By Jove, do you mean it?" his eyes lighted up. "But, after all, you
belong to the other camp," he added dejectedly. "I--I wish to heavens,
Miss Drake, you were not one of them!"
"My brother--Cecil would not have permitted this," she tried to
apologize, remembering with a cold heart that Lord Bazelhurst had
given the very instructions of which this was the result.
"We can't discuss it, Miss Drake. Some one from your side of the line
killed my dog and then fired at me. I'll admit I was trespassing, but
not until the dog was shot. He was on Lady Bazelhurst's land when he
was shot. It was not until after that that I trespassed, if you are
pleased to call it such. But I was unarmed; hang the luck!" The way he
said it conveyed much to her understanding.
"Tell me, please."
"I've had murder in my heart for half an hour, Miss Drake. Somehow you
soothe me." He sat down on the log again and leaned his head upon his
hand. With his eyes upon the dead dog he went on, controlling his
anger with an effort: "I rode down the river road this morning for a
change, intending to go up later on to our trysting place through the
wood." She heard him call it a trysting place without a thought of
resentment or shame.
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