Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/55

 "Yes, it was. Just to talk it over. Hark! What's that?"

"That shot? Oh, that's nothing. We often hear shots in the woods. Some rabbit"

"There it goes again."

"Yes, they got the poor little chap that time, for sure."

"Funny-sounding shots, don't you think?" asked Kate.

"I expect it's just an effect. You do hear them sounding different, sometimes. The keepers are getting rid of the rabbits this year, as fast as they can. They're a terrible pest to Tom, on the farm."

"Well I must be going," Kate announced. "It takes me a while to get home, and one can't walk fast this weather."

"Do stop and have a cup of tea. I was going to make it," said Rose.

"I told Edward if I wasn't in to tea, he could just make up his mind that I'd made up my mind to think no more about him."

"Oh, in that case," laughed the farmer's wife, "I won't urge you to stop."

"Her ladyship might be wanting me, anyhow, after she gets in," said Kate.

Mrs. Barnard kissed the young woman good-bye, patting her shoulder, and telling her to mind and be a good girl, not to be jealous of poor Liane with Lady