He came down from his perch and stood beside her. "Why, Wenna," said he, "do you know what you really need? Some one to take you in hand thoroughly, and give you such an abundance of cheerful and pleasant days that you would never think of singling out any one of them. Why shouldn't you have weeks and months of happy idling in bright weather, such as lots of people have who don't deserve them a bit? There's something wrong in your position. You want some one to become your master and compel you to make yourself happy. You won't of yourself study your own comfort: some one else ought to make you." "And who do you think would care to take so much trouble about me?" she said with a smile, for she attached no serious meaning to this random talk. Her companion's face flushed somewhat--not with embarrassment, but with the courage of what he was going to say. "I would," he said boldly. "You will say it is none of my business, but I tell you I would give twenty thousand pounds to-morrow if I were allowed to--to get you a whole summer of pleasant holidays." There was something about the plain-spoken honesty of this avowal that touched her keenly. Wild and impossible as the suggestion was, it told her at least what one person in the world thought of her. She said to him, with her eyes cast down, "I like to hear you speak like that--not for my own sake, but I know there is nothing generous and kindly that you wouldn't do at a mere moment's impulse. But I hope you don't think I have been grumbling over my lot on such a day as this? Oh no: I see too much of other people's way of living to complain of my own. I have every reason to be contented and happy." "Yes, you're a deal too contented and happy," said he with an impatient shrug. "You want somebody to alter all that, and see that you get more to be contented and happy about." She rose: he gave her his hand to help her up. But he did not surrender her hand then, for the path up the slope was a deep and difficult one, and she could fairly rely on his strength and sureness of foot. "But you are not content, Mr. Trelyon," she said. "I always notice that whenever you get to a dangerous place you are never satisfied unless you are putting your life in peril. Wouldn't you like to ride your black horse down the face of this precipice? or wouldn't you like to clamber down blindfold? Why does a man generally seem to be anxious to get rid of his life?" "Perhaps it ain't of much use to him," he said coolly. "You ought not to say that," she answered in a low voice.