"No, I think we have had enough;" Sue rose from her seat in offended dignity. "Leo has got to learn that a friend's name should not be bandied about, a mark for insults----" "But I wasn't--but I didn't;" the momentary mortification Leo had undergone was forgotten in an instant, and all haste and incoherence she sprang after her sister's retreating figure, and caught it. "Sue, dear Sue, you know I never thought of such a thing. Insults? Oh, Sue!" "They sounded like insults, Leo." "Then they had no business to. I never would insult anybody, least of all a nice good creature like Euty--there now, you are vexed again. But do let me just say why I laughed about being 'permitted' to see him. It is because he regularly haunts my steps when I'm alone. He does, indeed he does, the dear good man. No doubt he has his reasons, but when you spoke with bated breath----" "I don't know what you can possibly mean, Leo." "Oh, yes, you do. You think it a blessed privilege----" "It _is_ a privilege." "Not to me. I am hard put to it sometimes to scuttle out of his way." "To scuttle out of his way!"--for sheer amazement Sue paused to listen. "It's true, it's perfectly true." Leo nodded at her with mischievous pertinacity. "I am forever running across old Euty--Mr. Custance, then,--because, of course, he does tramp round his parish like a gallant old soul, and I'm sure I honour him for it,--but I have nowhere else to go either. It has been so awfully wet of late, the woods are sopping, so I must take to the roads, and on the roads there is Euty--Mr. Custance. And Euty--Mr. Custance--hankers after me; and you know you said I wasn't to hanker after him, not until you gave me leave----" "I never said such a word." "You said I was to have no dealings with anybody--except Val; and Val doesn't count. But of course Euty doesn't know that, and he thinks I'm a poor little soul, and might be glad to pass the time of day with anybody. Whereas I--I like the dear good man very well in church; but outside it, I don't pine and crave for his society. I can exist without it. You needn't stretch a point to grant it me----" "Is that child going on forever?" struck in Maud, impatiently. "Why do you let her pour out this flood of nonsense, Sue? She simply wants to hear her own tongue, and give no one else a chance." Apparently, however, Sue thought otherwise. Disregarding the interruption, she maintained a serious and puzzled air. "Am I to understand that you suppose yourself an object of interest to Mr. Custance, Leo?" "If not, why does he hunt me about the roads? Why does he come galloping after me----" "Leo!" "He does--he did yesterday. I was on ahead near Betty Farmiloe's cottage, and out he popped and saw me. I walked on as fast as ever I could, but his long legs took him over the ground like a racer, and he would have caught me up as sure as fate----" "You misinterpret a very ordinary civility,----" but the speaker was not allowed to proceed.