'Miss Woodrow, you are taking my character away.'
'Pish! the disguise was too thin. Why, the children have penetrated it. So has poor Yarra. They love you! You are brave--you rescued Mr. Macdougal from the Bushrangers. You are generous--you do not try to make him appear contemptible because of his afflictions, as some of the others have done. You are gentle--I see it in your bearing towards the little ones. You are kind, and Yarra is devoted to you.'
'And yet I swear there are no wings under my coat.'
'Often, when looking at you, I wonder at your resemblance to Mr Done; and I wonder most when I find you expressing a vein of thought I believed to be peculiar to him. It makes me think that there is something in common between you, aside from your physical likeness, if only a common wrong, or a common sorrow, that has coloured your characters.'
'It is hard to hide anything from those divine eyes,' he said gravely.
'Believe me, if I ever make confession, it shall be to one quick in sympathy and merciful in judgment as you are.' There was a strain of deep emotion in his voice, and as he reached towards her she gave him her hand, and he pressed her slender fingers gently and gratefully, continuing with feeling, and in the manner of one whose superior years gave him the privilege: 'Lucy, you are as good as you are beautiful, and in all sincerity I say I have never seen a woman one half as beautiful as you appear in my eyes at this moment.'
He had given the girl an impression that she was helping him, that her sympathy was precious. In her innocence she was deeply stirred, and yet glad at heart. She was silent for some minutes, and then said:
'Do you know, I think you sometimes underestimate Mrs. Macdougal's sensibilities.'
'I think you hurt her without being conscious of it. Her sense of humour is not keen, and I know she is pained when you least suspect it.'
A ghost of a smile stirred about Ryder's mouth. 'I would not pain her for the world,' he said. 'She is a kindly little woman, and her hospitality is charming; but you must admit she is droll. What are my faults?'
'Forgive me if I seem to be treating you as a pupil.'
'There is no one on earth to whom I would rather go to school.