I watched you go back to the river."

"Do you live near here, then?" he asked.

"About three miles away."

"And you were watching me all the time?" He put his statement as a
question.

"No, I wasn't," the young woman answered indignantly. "You happened to
be in the landscape."

"A blot in it," he suggested. "A hop-toad splashing in the puddle."

The every-ready dimples flashed out at this. "You did make quite a
splash when you went in. The fish must have thought it was a whale."

"And when I told you the water was fine, and you came in, too, they
probably took you for a naiad."

She thanked him with an informal little nod.

"I thought you Anglo-Saxons did not give compliments."

"I don't," he immediately answered.

"Oh! If that isn't another one, I'm mistaken, sir." She turned
indifferently away, apparently of the opinion that she had been quite
friendly enough to this self-possessed young stranger.