With a satisfied tug he pronounced the thing finished and wheeled round to regard his associates.

"Now, you young wretches--" and the words froze on his lips, for in the place of two tatterdemalion boys he saw a young girl holding his line limply and smiling with much nervousness.
"Oh," he cried, and then became dumb and confused.

He was shy and unhappy with women, save the few whom he had known from childhood.

The girl was no better.

She had blushed deeply, and was now minutely scanning the stones in the burn.