For the first time he began to be conscious of his great good fortune, and he began to congratulate himself on his foresight in having agreed to Douglas Rivers’ plea.
“ Oh, what a lovely mare!” cried Maude. “ It was very nice of you to come to meet me. My father spoke highly of you, you know,” her high, sweet voice assured him. Charles Cameron helped her into the surrey, not forgetting to feast his eyes on the neatly turned ankles which she exhibited, chastely veiled in rather drab and unprepossessing black cotton hose. She behaved quite like a little lady, holding her skirts just so, and there was a proud bearing to her. Yet the softness and loveliness of her curvaceous body had already begun to excite him. He reflected to himself that the old adage about casting bread upon the waters and having it returned a thousand- fold had never been more truthfully borne out than on this particular day.
On the way back to his house, Charles Cameron put himself out to behave as affably as possible, so as to make the best possible impression on his lovely young ward. For her part, Maude chattered away like a veritable magpie, exclaiming over the natural beauties of the scenery around her, the peacefulness of the landscape and he general neighborhood. Interspersed with these amenities, she provided spontaneous tidbits of information about herself and her father which helped document Charles Cameron on the cruel set of circumstances which had brought her to this virtual orphan’ s estate. She revealed also, unwittingly to be sure, that her elderly and ailing father had practiced a kind of deception on her new guardian: Douglas Rivers had purposely neglected to inform Charles Cameron as to his daughter’ s actual age, preferring to have the younger man suppose that Maude was a very little girl.