She reddened. 'Perhaps he has!' she murmured; then arose, he
following her; and they soon reached Margery's home, approaching it
from the lower or meadow side--the opposite to that of the garden
top, where she had met the Baron.

'You'll come in, won't you, Jim?' she said, with more ceremony than
heartiness.

'No--I think not to-night,' he answered. 'I'll consider what you've
said.'

'You are very good, Jim,' she returned lightly. 'Good-bye.'



CHAPTER VII



Jim thoughtfully retraced his steps. He was a village character, and
he had a villager's simplicity: that is, the simplicity which comes
from the lack of a complicated experience. But simple by nature he
certainly was not. Among the rank and file of rustics he was quite a
Talleyrand, or rather had been one, till he lost a good deal of his
self-command by falling in love.

Now, however, that the charming object of his distraction was out of
sight he could deliberate, and measure, and weigh things with some
approach to keenness. The substance of his queries was, What change
had come over Margery--whence these new notions?