That was the question. Perhaps, even if he
loved her, he would not think it best to tell her so under his own roof,
where she would have to run away from him to escape, if she did not choose
to listen. Whether he loved her or not, it must come to the same in the
end. But she could not help longing to know the truth. The one thing she
did already know was that she was deliciously frightened, yet glad that
she was to see Nick's ranch without Mrs. Gaylor.
At half-past two she started out, Carmen giving her explicit directions,
which she could not mistake, because, after passing through the bamboos,
the way was straight as far as that stretch of disused pasture land of
which mention had been made.
"You'll be in shade of the orange-trees till you come to a big gate in a
fence," Carmen explained. "Shut it after you, please, because dogs might
stray into the garden if you left it open. No cattle graze on that part of
the ranch any more. They're going to irrigate there and to plant alfalfa,
the soil's likely to be so good. But I've been weak enough to let gipsies
camp on the place once or twice, and there might be some there now, with
their dogs and horses, for all I know. As you go out of the gate you'll
see a kind of track worn in the grass; and all you've got to do is to
follow it for about three quarters of a mile, till you come to a new road
that's just been finished.
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