Thurso, to his sister's great relief, came down to dinner in the most equable and cheerful spirits. All trace of his headache had vanished, and Maud thought that Dr. Symes must have been mistaken about it, for, as he had said, he had only guessed that Thurso must be in great pain. In any case, it was her part to try to take his thoughts away from fever and neuralgia, and all the darker side of things, and she instantly began on her own poaching comedy by the river.
"Thurso, I have broken the record to-day," she said. "I have done the most awful thing that has ever been done. After you went out this morning, I took a rod down to the river to look about for sea-trout, and was firm in a salmon--oh no, he saw me hook it--when Mr. Bertie Cochrane appeared. How could you forget to tell me you had let the fishing? There I was, tied to it--to his fish. He watched me play it. And, of course, I didn't know him from Adam."
For the moment Thurso was almost as horrified as Maud had been.
"Good Lord!" he said; "I hope you lost the fish."
"Not at all. It was entirely owing to Mr. Cochrane that I landed it, for in the nick of time down came Duncan--his gillie, not ours at all--with a gaff. Mr. Cochrane looked on with interest and sympathy."
Thurso had laid down his knife and fork, and a huge grin was beginning to take the place of his horror.
"I will. Mr. Cochrane had a rod, and I said I supposed he was going over to Scarsdale. No, he was not. So, with a slight addition of stiffness, I thanked him for his help, but said that this was your river. He explained. Oh, Thurso, did you ever? And I asked him to come and dine to-morrow, and eat some of his own fish. He is coming."
"Oh, what would I not give to have been there when the light broke on you!" he said. "And to ask him to dinner--add insult to injury! You were caught poaching--poaching, you know--and then you ask the rightful owner to have some. Did you tell him, by the way, that we were a typhoid hospital?"
"Oh, Maud--oh, Maud! An American, too! He will probably telegraph an account of it to the New York press, and it will come out all over the States with enormous headlines!"
"Oh, I think not," said she. "I'm sure he wouldn't do it."