Page:Wildwildheart00reesiala.pdf/138

seemed to point to some feeling a little warmer than friendship. Angry with herself for such a thought, Ann dismissed it, and set off in the light of the sunset across the paddocks with Dick Holmes. He was silent and pre-occupied during the walk, but Ann, too, was in no mood for conversation. She was glad that Holmes was with her, for a certain shyness at meeting Rodney again had seized her. Yet when they were all together in the little front room, shadowed now in the fading light, she found herself wishing fervently that Holmes would leave her. After a few minutes her wish was granted, for Holmes stepped out into the kitchen to have a word with Macdonald. Now, she and Rodney were quite alone, and Ann knew her heart was beating painfully.

“I'm glad the knee’s so much better,” she remarked.

“Oh, it’s getting on A1 now,” returned Marsh. “I’ve been walking a bit today.” He paused, and then went on abruptly. “I’ve been wanting to see you. I’ve got to—explain. I’m sorry for what I did... what I said—yesterday.” He was speaking with some difficulty. “No man has any right to...to tell a woman he loves her, if he doesn’t mean to ask her to marry him.”

There was silence for a moment, and then Ann laughed. But she was glad he could not see her face.

“Are you breaking it gently to me that you don’t mean to do me that honor?” she asked.

“I don’t know about it’s being much honor,” he replied, “but I oughtn’t to have said what I did when I haven’t any intention of marrying. I didn’t mean to say it.”

“It wasn’t true?”