She felt an unaccountable desire to laugh, and then, at the first twitchings of her lips, she restrained herself.

She knew that tragedy was stalking by her side.
"I think, Captain Griffiths," she said gravely, "that you are talking nonsense, and you are not a very good hand at it.

Won't you please ride on ?" He made no movement to mount his horse.

He plodded along the soft sand by her side--a queer, elongated figure, his gloomy eyes fixed upon the ground.
"Until this fellow Lessingham came you were never so hard," he persisted.
She looked at him with genuine curiosity.
"I was never so hard ?" she repeated.

"Do you imagine that I have ever for a single moment considered my demeanour towards you--you of all persons in the world?
I simply don't remember when you have been there and when you haven't.