I dare say that he had never before seen a girl who had lived so much alone and in such a remote and wild place.
I believe Sir Ian and his wife were pleased, too, to see that I was talking.

They were glad that their guests should see that I was intelligent enough to hold the attention even of a clever man.

If Hector MacNairn was interested in me I could not be as silly and dull as I looked.

But on my part I was only full of wonder and happiness.

I was a girl, and he had been my only hero; and it seemed even as if he liked me and cared about my queer life.
He was not a man who had the air of making confidences or talking about himself, but before we parted I seemed to know him and his surroundings as if he had described them.