From time to time she struck the myrtle hedge beside her with the head of a large flower which hung by its stalk from her listless hands, or held it to her face as if to inhale its perfume.

Dismissing his orderly by a side path, he rode gently forward, but, to his surprise, without turning, or seeming to be aware of his presence, she quickened her pace, and even appeared to look from side to side for some avenue of escape.

If only to mend matters, he was obliged to ride quickly forward to her side, where he threw himself from his horse, flung the reins on his arm, and began to walk beside her.

She at first turned a slightly flushed cheek away from him, and then looked up with a purely simulated start of surprise.
"I am afraid," he said gently, "that I am the first to break my own orders in regard to any intrusion on your privacy.

But I wanted to ask you if I could give you any aid whatever in the change you think of making." He was quite sincere,--had been touched by her manifest disturbance, and, despite his masculine relentlessness of criticism, he had an intuition of feminine suffering that was in itself feminine.
"Meaning, that you are in a hurry to get rid of me," she said curtly, without raising her eyes.
"Meaning that I only wish to expedite a business which I think is unpleasant to you, but which I believe you have undertaken from unselfish devotion." The scant expression of a reserved nature is sometimes more attractive to women than the most fluent vivacity.