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and he ejaculated:
    “ But beauty’s self she is ...   !”
    Venetia then found herself being ruthlessly kissed. Her cheeks much flushed, her eyes  blazing, she fought strenuously to break free from a stronger hold than she had ever known, but  her efforts only made Damerel laugh, and she owed her deliverance to Flurry. The spaniel,  emerging from the undergrowth to find his mistress struggling in the arms of a stranger, was cast  into great mental perturbation. Instinct urged him to fly to her rescue, but dimly understood  precept forbade him to bite anything that walked on two legs. He tried compromise, barking  hysterically. It did not answer, and instinct won the day.
    Since Damerel was wearing topboots Flurry‟s heroic assault drew no blood, but it did  cause him to glance down at the spaniel, relaxing his hold on Venetia just enough to enable her  to wrench herself away.
    “ Sit !” commanded Damerel.
    Flurry, recognizing the voice of a Master, promptly abased himself, ears dipped, and tail  deprecatingly wagging.
    “What the devil do you mean by it, eh?” said Damerel, catching him by the  lower jaw,  and forcing up his head.
    Flurry recognized that voice too, and, much relieved, did his best to explain that the  regrettable incident had arisen from a misunderstanding. Venetia, who, instead of seizing the  opportunity to run away, had been angrily re-tieing the strings of her sunbonnet, exclaimed: “Oh,  have you   no   discrimination, you idiotic animal?”
    Damerel, who was patting the repentant Flurry, looked up, his eyes narrowing.
    “And as for you, sir,” said Venetia, meeting that searching stare with a flaming look,  “your quotations don‟t make your advances a whit more acceptable to me—and they don‟t  deceive me into thinking you anything but   a pestilent, complete knave   !”
    He burst out laughing. “Bravo! Where did you find that?”
    Venetia, who had suddenly remembered the rest of the quotation, replied: “If you don‟t  know, I certainly shan‟t tell you.   That   phrase is apt enough, but the context won‟t do.”
    “Oho! My curiosity is now thoroughly roused! I recognize the hand, and see that I must  carefully study my Shakespeare.”
    “I should think you had seldom employed your time more worthily!”
    “Who are you?” he demanded abruptly. “I took you for a village maiden—probably one

    of my tenants.”
    “Did you indeed? Well, if that is the way you mean to conduct yourself amongst the  village maidens you won‟t win much liking here!”
    “No, no, the danger is that I might win too much!” he retorted. “Who are you? Or should
    I first present myself to you? I‟m Damerel, you know.”
    “Yes, so I supposed, at the outset of our delightful acquaintance. Later, of course, I was  sure of it.”
    „Oh, oh—!   My reputation, Iago, my reputation !” he exclaimed, laughing again. “Fair  Fatality, you are the most unusual female I have encountered in all my thirty-eight years!”
    “Yon can‟t think how deeply flattered I am!” she assured him. “I daresay my head would  be quite turned if I didn‟t suspect that amongst so many a dozen or so may have slipped from  your memory.”
    “More like a hundred! Am I never to learn your name? I shall,  you know, whether you  tell me or no!”
    “Without the least difficulty! I am very much better known in this country than you, for  I‟m a Lanyon of Undershaw!”
    “Impressive! Undershaw? Oh, yes! your land marches with mine, doesn‟t it? Are you in  the habit of walking abroad quite unattended, Miss Lanyon?”
    “Yes—except, of course, when I have had warning that you are at the Priory!”
    “Spiteful little cat!” he said appreciatively. “How the devil was I to recognize Miss  Lanyon of Undershaw in a crumpled gown and a  sunbonnet, and without even the chaperonage  of her maid?”
    “Oh, am I to understand, then, that if you had known my quality you