So absorbed was she in her chaos of feeling and thoughts that she did not even hear the humble symphony of the hundreds of bees drawing their treasure from the golden hearts of the roses; and did not see, across the path a score of yards away, the tall figure of Joe Ellison among the rosebushes, pruning-shears in hand, with which he had been cutting out dead blossoms, gazing at her with that hungry, admiring, speculative look with which he had regarded the young women upon the beach.
Presently she heard Hunt's footsteps coming down the path.

Then she detected a second pair.

Dick accompanying him, she thought.

And then Hunt appeared before her, and was saying in his big voice: "Miss Cameron, permit me to present my friend, Mr.Brandon." And then he added in a lowered voice, grinning with the impish delight of an overgrown boy who is playing a trick: "Thought I'd better go through the motions of introducing you people, so it would look as if you'd just met for the first time." And with that he was gone.
Maggie had risen galvanically.

For the moment she could only stare.