"You are thinking of Sir John Hamblyn?" he questioned.
"They say he is being oppressed now," she answered, after a pause.
"The money-lenders. Rumour says that he has lost heavily on the Turf and on the Stock Exchange--whatever that may be--and that he is hard put to it to keep his creditors at bay."
"That may account in some measure for his hardness to others."
"He hoped to retrieve his position, it is said, by marrying his daughter to Lord Probus," Ruth went on, "but she refuses to keep her promise."
"What?" he exclaimed, with a sudden gasp.
"How much of the gossip is true, of course, nobody knows, or rather how much of it isn't true--for it is certain she has refused to marry him; and Lord Probus is so mad that he refused to speak to Sir John or have anything to do with him."
"What has become of Miss Dorothy is not quite clear. Some people say that Sir John has sent her to a convent school in France. Others say that she has gone off of her own free will, and taken a situation as a governess under an assumed name."
"Are you sure she isn't at the Manor?" he questioned eagerly.
"Quite sure. The servants talk very freely about it. Sir John stormed and swore, and threatened all manner of things, but she held her own. He shouted so loudly sometimes that they could not help hearing what he said. Miss Dorothy was very calm, but very determined. He taunted her with being in love with somebody else----"
"She must have had a very hard time of it by what the servants say. It is to be hoped she has peace now she has got away."
"Sir John is a brute," Ralph said bitterly. "He has no mercy on anybody, not even on his own flesh and blood."
"Isn't it always true that 'with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again'?" Ruth questioned, looking up into his face.
"It may be," he answered, "and yet many people suffer injustice who have never meted it out to others."
For a while silence fell between them, then looking up into his face she said--
"Have you any plans for the future, Ralph?"
"A good many, Ruth, but the chances are they will come to nothing. One thing my prison experience has allowed me, and that is time to think. If I can work out half my dreams there will be topsy-turvydom in St. Goram." And he smiled again.