"Why not? You said I might tell my secrets. I wasn't afraid. I thought
'Oh, aren't I glad I done what Mrs. Dale told me not to--and come into
my wondersome, wondersome wood, and drawn _you_ after me!'"
"Norah, stop."
"Why? You're glad too, aren't you? I _know_ you are. I knew it when
you came walking so tall and so quiet; an' I thought 'This is it--what
I always hoped for--wonders to happen to me in Hadleigh Wood.' But I
was afraid of the wood once--more afraid than Granny knew. I wouldn't
tell her."
"What d'you mean? What wouldn't you tell her?"
"What I'd seen here."
"What had you seen?"
"I kep' it as my great secret--but I'll tell you, because you've found
out all my secrets, now, haven't you?"
"Well, let's hear it."
"I saw a man hiding, crawling, ready to spring out on me."
"Oh. When was that?"
"Ages and ages ago, when I was almost a baby."
"Heft yourself, Norah. I want to get up, an' stretch ma legs."
The gentle soothing fire had faded--an invincible coldness crept on
slow-moving blood from his heart to his brain. The girl was safe now.
He would not injure her to-night. He got up, and stood looking down at
her.
"Well," he said quietly, "let's hear some more. What sort of a man was
it?"
"A wild man--with water dripping off him.
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