Feeling better now?"
She nodded. "Yes, much better. I like you, Bunny, but I can't help
thinking you're rather cruel. You didn't want to kill the poor thing?"
"I think it was rather prolonging the agony to let him live," said Bunny.
"Let me see your hands!"
She tried to hide them, but he was insistent, and at length impulsively
she yielded.
"You must come down to old Bishop's and bathe them," he said.
She shook her head instantly. "No, Bunny, I'm not going to. I'll run down
to the lake if you like. There's sure not to be anyone there."
"All right," said Bunny, but he lingered still with his arm about her.
"Will you kiss me, Toby?" he said suddenly.
"No," she said, and swiftly averted her face.
His arm tightened for a second, then he felt her brace herself against
him and let her go. "All right," he said again. "We'll go down to the
lake."
She threw him a swift glance of surprise, but he turned away to release
Chops and unfasten his horse without further discussion.
Their way lay along a grass ride that ran beside the larch wood. Bunny
walked gravely along, leading his horse. Toby moved lightly beside him.
Behind them the silence closed like the soft folds of a curtain, but it
was not a silence devoid of life.
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