So they started off, and at the edge of the wood a dusky shape scampered off from the grass and disappeared into the gloom. "What's that?" he asked. "Badger," she answered, promptly, in some surprise. They commenced the ascent of the steep, stony path. "Supposing I broke my leg, what would you do?" he asked. "Carry you," she said. "Think you could?" She laughed, and going close up to him, put her arms round him and lifted him easily. "Well done," he said. They went to the top and sat down again in the old place, the little clearing, overlooking the valley. They sat for some time in silence. "Who are you going to marry?" she asked. He looked at her sharply. "Poor little devil," he thought, "is it possible--" Then he looked into her eyes very steadily, rather sadly. "I haven't any idea who I shall marry, yet," he said. "Probably some girl that I shall meet at home, some girl who lives in a house about the same size that my father lives in. A girl who reads and writes, and perhaps plays the piano and sings, who can look after a house and manage servants and see that everything is looked after properly. That is," he added, thoughtfully, "if I can ever make enough money to keep such a girl." She was silent, and he thought perhaps he had been too brutal. "I hope that she will be as beautiful and graceful as you, but one can't have everything." "What does your father do?" she asked, and her tone was one of interested inquiry simply. "He's a parson." "Keeps a church?" "Exactly, or the church keeps him." "I can play the fiddle and concertina and sing," she said. "Can you?" he asked, in surprise. "Yes, father says I'm good." "I've no doubt you are," he said, with some amusement. He wondered what the gipsy standard of music was. Suddenly he noticed her raise her head, listening intently, he watched her with interest; the delicate nostrils quivered, she seemed to be smelling something. "There's someone in the wood," she said. "All right. Let 'em stop there." "Come into the dark," she whispered. She moved silently into the shadow of the pine trees. He was getting up to follow her when a rough looking man in a round fur cap, a suit with big poacher pockets to the coat and gaiters protecting his trousers, and carrying a big stick under his arm, came out into the moonlight. "So I've caught you, have I?" "What do you mean?" The young engineer's tone was angry, imperious. "You knows, you an' that girl. I seen her go away." Without more ado, he rushed viciously at the engineer and lashed out a sweeping blow with his bludgeon. The young athlete sprang nimbly aside, and as the gipsy turned to make a second onslaught, the girl came out of the darkness of the wood behind and sprang on his back like a wild cat, pulling him over backwards and wrenching the stick from his grasp. She threw it to the engineer. "Take that," she said, "and watch him."