I know it--somehow." "It is very likely, in this rifle dress I wear," said I smiling.
"Yet a man may dress as he pleases." "You mistrust me for a spy ?" "If you are, why, you are but one more among many hereabouts.

I think you have not been in Westchester very long.

It does not matter.

No boy with the face you wear was born to betray anything more important than a woman." I turned hot and scarlet with chagrin at her cool presumption--and would not for worlds have had her see how the impudence stung and shamed me.
For a full minute she stood there watching me; then: "I ask pardon," she said very gravely.
And somehow, when she said it I seemed to experience a sense of inferiority--which was absurd and monstrous, considering what she doubtless was.
It had now begun to rain in very earnest; and was like to rain harder ere the storm passed.

My clothes being my best, I instinctively stepped into the doorway; and, of a sudden, she was there too, barring my entry, flushed and dangerous, demanding the reason of my intrusion.
"Why," said I astonished, "may I not seek shelter from a storm in a ruined sugar-house, without asking by your leave ?" "This sap-house is my own dwelling!" she said hotly.