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Page 55
"I'm so sorry I disturbed you," said Charlotte Ruston, finding words at
last, after having been surprised out of speech by the sudden apparition,
"I hope I didn't wake you from a nap."
"You haven't disturbed me, and I was not asleep. I'm only waiting for Dr.
Burns, who may come now at any minute. This is a pleasant place to meet
in, isn't it?"
Their hands met, each looked with swift, straight scrutiny into the face
of the other, and then hands and eyes parted abruptly. When they regarded
each other after that, it was as two casual acquaintances may exchange
glances, in the course of conversation, when other things are of more
interest than the personal relation.
"Indeed it is pleasant--charming! The path lured me on and on, I couldn't
stop. I ought to be at home this minute. Did you walk so far? Mrs. Burns
told me you were here, and that you had been ill. I was very sorry, and
I'm now so glad to see you looking so well."
"Thank you. I am much myself again, but not yet quite equal to a walk of
this distance. Dr. Burns and his car are just a few rods away, on the
other side of this bit of woods. He has a patient in a little shack over
there, and brought me along to see this spot. It was worth coming for."
"You must enjoy Dr. Burns very much."
"We are old friends, and being together again after a nine-years'
separation, is a thing to make the most of."
"I should think so. He seems so alive, so full of interest in every
living thing. He must be a fine comrade."
"The finest in the world. To me there is nobody like him, and most people
who know him, I've noticed, feel in the same way. He has a beautiful
wife. She is a friend of yours, she tells me."
"Also an old friend, and almost the dearest I have. I'm very happy to be
near her. Dr. Leaver, will you tell me what time it is, please? I have a
dreadful suspicion that I shall be very late."
As he drew out his watch a voice was heard from the other side of a clump
of undergrowth, calling crisply:
"All right, Jack, we're off. One more call before luncheon, and it's
blamed late, so get busy."
"In a minute," Leaver called back, smiling, as he showed Charlotte his
watch's dial.
Red Pepper Burns looked over the bushes, discerning in his friend's tone
an intention of delay, and inclined to be still more peremptory with him
about it. Discovering now what looked like an interesting situation, he
came forward, bareheaded, his frown of impatience turning to a smile of
greeting.
"What luck, to find a dryad in the woods!" he cried. "Did this gentleman
invade your domain?"
"Not at all. I invaded his most unexpectedly. I was following a lane,
intending to turn back at any moment, when it ran away under a fence and
treacherously led me into trouble."
"Call it trouble, do you, meeting your friends in the woods? That's
always the way! Call a woman luck, and she calls you trouble! Let me tell
you, Miss Charlotte, it's luck for you, meeting us, for we can give you a
lift of a mile down the road. We have to turn off there, but you'll be
less late for a luncheon that's probably already cold than you would be
after walking the whole distance. You won't refuse? You mustn't, for I
expect it's my only chance to get John Stone Leaver of Baltimore started.
Otherwise he'll stand here till mid-afternoon, showing you his watch and
pointing out to you the beauties of this noisy brook."
"Thank you, Dr. Burns, but you can't very well take me in a car built for
two."
"Can't I? The car has frequently carried half a dozen, judiciously
distributed over the running-boards, to the imminent peril of the tires
and springs. We'll put Dr. Leaver on the running-board. It will hurt
neither his clothes nor his dignity, and if it does he can get off and
walk."
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