Still, he lingered upon the verandah, and what she deduced from this was not unpleasant to the girl.

Though it still returned at increasing intervals, she had almost forgotten her antipathy to the man, and the fact that he was rapidly yielding to her refining and sometimes chastening influence was indirectly flattering.

Miss Deringham experienced the more gratification in using it because he was quick-witted, and a veiled rebuke would bring a little darker colour into his sun-darkened face, and she could forgive his offences, which were indeed not frequent, for the sake of his penitence.
"You have been very patient," she said at length.
"No," said Alton with a twinkle in his eyes, "I don't think that is a thing anybody could bring up against me." "Still," said the girl, "you have been an hour here talking to me, when you must have been dying to get away." Alton laughed, and Miss Deringham found something pleasant in his naive directness.

"Now, that's not fair.

If I had been I should have gone," said he.