"I shall be delighted," he said; and he walked away by her side.
"Father writes to me every week or two," she went on, "but I can never get any news out of him. I suppose it is that nothing happens in St. Goram."
"In the main we move in the old ruts," he answered slowly. "Besides, your father will not be interested in the common people, as they are called."
"He is getting very tired of the place. He wants to get his household into the very smallest compass, so that he can spend more time in London and abroad."
"In the winter, very much; but in the summer I pine for St. Goram. I want the breeze of the downs and the shade of the plantation."
"But you will be running down before the summer is over?"
"I am afraid not. To begin with, I cannot get away very well, and then I think my father intends practically to shut up the house at the end of this month."
"He will stay with my Aunt Fanny in London--she is my father's sister, you know--or he may go abroad with father for a month or two." And she sighed unconsciously.
For a while they walked on in silence. They had left the hot yellow path for the green turf. In front of them was a belt of trees, with chairs dotted about in the shadow. Ralph felt as though he were in dreamland. It seemed scarcely credible that he should be walking and talking with the daughter of Sir John Hamblyn.
Dorothy broke the silence at length, and her words came with manifest effort.
"I hope my father expressed his regret, and apologised for the mistake he made?"
"Oh, as to that," he said, with a short laugh, "I am afraid I have given him no opportunity. You see, I have been very much occupied, and then I don't live in St. Goram now."
"You know, I suppose, that my mother is dead?"
"No; I had not heard. Oh, I am so sorry!"
"She died the day after I came back from prison."
"I don't think she thought so. She was glad to welcome me back again, of course, and to know that my innocence had been established. But since father died she seemed to have nothing to live for."
Then silence fell again for several minutes. They had reached the shadow of the trees, and Dorothy suggested that they should sit down and rest a while. Ralph pulled up a chair nearly opposite her. He still felt like one in a dream. Every now and then he raised his eyes to her face, and thought how beautiful she had grown.