Page:Following darkness (IA followingdarknes00reid).pdf/318

 crash, and Katherine said, "Some tree must have gone!"

"I wish it had been this summer-house," I muttered bitterly.

She looked at me, her face grown graver. The flash was followed by no other, but the rain continued in a fierce downpour, beating through our flimsy shelter, and streaming down the paths in brown muddy rivulets.

"I can't understand why mamma should have made such a fuss," Katherine went on, but no longer in the same tone, though I knew well enough the alteration in it was due merely to what I had said. " She is usually very sensible."

"How can you be so indifferent?" I asked, in a rough voice, for her calmness exasperated me.

"I'm not indifferent. I'm sorry I wrote. But we should have been going in three or four days, at any rate. You know that."Her manner was tinged with a faint reproach. I answered nothing, and she went on. "It is getting lighter—the rain will soon be over."

"Do you want to go? "I asked furiously. "Don't let me keep you if you do!

"Why do you speak like that, Peter? I told you I was sorry."

"This is the last time I shall see you alone."

"Nonsense"

"If you are going to-morrow, will you promise to meet me to-night somewhere—here—or on the golf-links?

"I can't possibly. There are people coming to dinner. Won't you come—or come in afterwards, at least?"

"Shall I see you by yourself if I do?"

"By myself?"

"Will you come out here with me?"

She sighed at my unreasonableness. "How can I? You know mamma and the others will be there, and how can I leave them? But say you'll come."