Then she told him how the heiress had praised his pluck and strength.

"And oh! Gavan, I was so proud, I could have hugged her!" Thus she rattled on, while he, because it was his nature found it no trouble to reply in kind, with a good imitation of sincerity.

On such a night, with such a girl clinging to him, it would have been a very poor specimen of a man who could not have trumped up a sort of enthusiasm.
But in his heart he was cursing his luck that just as chance had thrown the heiress in his way, and put her under an obligation to him, he was held to his old bargain--the bargain that he had made for position's sake, and which he would now have liked to break for the same reason.
It would be wearisome to record their talk, all the way up to the house.
The girl--impetuous, hot-blooded, excitable--poured out her love-talk like a bird singing.

Happiness complete was hers for the time; but Gavan's heart was not in the wooing, and he listened and was silent.
Hugh and Mary, walking on ahead, knew nothing of the love scenes just behind them.

They talked of many things, of the moonlight and the river and the scent of the flowers, but all the time Hugh felt diffident and tongue-tied.