She gave me a look of surprise, made a wry face as if it hurt, and then
smiled bashfully. I was deeply moved at that; the helpless look in her
eyes and her little thin figure were more than I could resist; I was
drawn to her in that moment, and I took her long, slight hand in mine.
"Afterwards," I said, "No more now. We can meet again to-morrow."
XI
In the night I heard Asop get up from his corner and growl; I heard it
through my sleep, but I was dreaming just then of shooting, the growl of
the dog fitted into the dream, and it did not wake me, quite. When I
stepped out of the hut next morning there were tracks in the grass of a
pair of human feet; someone had been there--had gone first to one of my
windows, then to the other. The tracks were lost again down on the road.
She came towards me with hot cheeks, with a face all beaming.
"Have you been waiting?" she said. "I was afraid you would have to
wait."
I had not been waiting; she was on the way before me.
"Have you slept well?" I asked. I hardly knew what to say.
"No, I haven't. I have been awake," she answered. And she told me she
had not slept that night, but had sat in a chair with her eyes closed.
And she had been out of the house for a little walk.
"Someone was outside my hut last night," I said.
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