"
"I am glad of that," said Ethne, and she bade Willoughby wait within the
enclosure until she returned, and went out by herself to see that the
way was clear. The garden was quite empty. Durrance had disappeared from
it, and the great stone terrace of the house and the house itself, with
its striped sunblinds, looked a place of sleep. It was getting towards
one o'clock, and the very birds were quiet amongst the trees. Indeed the
quietude of the garden struck upon Ethne's senses as something almost
strange. Only the bees hummed drowsily about the flowerbeds, and the
voice of a lad was heard calling from the slopes of meadow on the far
side of the creek. She returned to Captain Willoughby.
"You can go now," she said. "I cannot pretend friendship for you,
Captain Willoughby, but it was kind of you to find me out and tell me
your story. You are going back at once to Kingsbridge? I hope so. For I
do not wish Colonel Durrance to know of your visit or anything of what
you have told me."
"Durrance was a friend of Feversham's--his great friend," Willoughby
objected.
"He is quite unaware that any feathers were sent to Mr. Feversham, so
there is no need he should be informed that one of them has been taken
back," Ethne answered.
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