Alton, who now wore a new jean jacket buttoned right up to the neck, leaned against a pillar, answering the questions of the girl, who glanced at him with a smile occasionally.  He had, as usual, a good deal to do that day, and now and then turned his eyes towards the sun, as though noticing its height above the cedars, which did not, of course, escape Miss Deringham’s attention.  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.  “It would please me to stay right here and talk to you all day.”

Miss Deringham shook her head reproachfully.  “One should imply such things and not put them into words.  Still, I scarcely think you will much longer have an opportunity.  We are going on to Vancouver very shortly.”

Alton’s face grew clouded.  “Why?” he said.

The girl laughed softly.  “We have inconvenienced Mrs. Margery a good deal already, and it is evident that we cannot stay here for ever.”

Alton moved abruptly, and his companion fancied she heard a stifled sigh.  “No,” he said gravely.  “It’s a pity; but you could wait for another month or two.”

Alice Deringham smiled a little.  “You and Charley will miss us, then?”

Alton nodded gravely, but there was a subdued brightness in his eyes, and the girl wished he would open them fully.  She fancied he was putting considerable restraint upon himself.  “I don’t know about Charley.  He can talk better than I can for himself, but I shall miss you all the time,” he said.  “This has been a revelation to me, and I feel that it is good for me to talk to you.  Then, before you came I had a kind of bitter feeling against all my father’s folks in England.  I figured they were wrapped up in their cast-iron pride, and ready to trample on anybody who got in their way; but you have started me thinking differently, and it seems my duty to know more of them.  After all, I am an Alton of Carnaby.”

The girl smiled again.  “You fancy you may have been wrong?”