"Your grounds are so extensive that you have a pretty wide range for your rambles," resumed Paul, in the same easy, friendly accents; "you can walk all the way to Claymount without touching the road, young Purcell tells me; and as for the paths, they seem to be legion; I should get lost if I attempted to wander about by myself." "Don't wander then; I advise you not. You really might get lost." "And then if I fell in with you I should be obliged to throw myself on your mercy, which would be a terrible catastrophe." "Oh, I should soon get rid of you," she made an effort to retort in the same light tone; "I should say--" she paused, "I should say, 'Maud is there,' and you would fly." "Is Maud then a woodland nymph also?" Was it her own fancy or was there an almost imperceptible pause before he spoke? And did the gay tone of the minute before undergo ever so slight a modification? Leo made answer with rather forced jocularity. "It would be my ruse for throwing you off, don't you see? I should not be positive absolutely that Maud was there, or anywhere--but you could look. You _might_ find her--or you might not. But anyhow you would not find me if you came back." "I am to give you a wide berth then, always?" "Always." CHAPTER XIV. PAUL GOES--AND RETURNS. "Is Paul going to stay here _all_ the time?" abruptly demanded Leonore one day. "That's what I want to know." Her father's voice made answer from the depths of an easy-chair; and it was a disconcerting answer, for he had been unobserved, indeed unseen. Had his head appeared above the back of the chair, Leo would have left the library as suddenly as she had entered it. She had thought Sue was alone. "Of course if he wishes to stay, he can," proceeded the general, laying down his paper; "but it's a monstrous long time--that's to say, hum--ha--there are still three weeks till the twenty-fifth, and he has been here three weeks already." "I am sure he is the best of guests," said Sue, gently. "Oh, the best of guests, no doubt. Bothers nobody. Still----" "Has anything been said?"--interposed Leo. She was drawing quick, impatient breaths, and had an air of giving battle, if not replied to as desired. No, nothing had been said, but Sue believed---- "If you only _believe_, that's no good. Can't you tell him to go? Can't you say it isn't the thing for him to stay on and on?"---- "My dear Leo!" "Highty-tighty!--" simultaneously ejaculated the general, "here's fierceness!" But he looked amused. "If Paul were your sweetheart, young lady, you wouldn't be in such a hurry to have him sent to the right-about. However, there's something in it, Sue." Sue looked distressed. "Remember what you said when he first came, father. How repeatedly you told him to make this his headquarters,--and there is another thing. The engagement took place so soon after he and Maud met, that they could not have known very much of each other. Hardly enough, perhaps. Don't you think it is as well----"