"My dear young lady, how can I thank you enough and how can I sufficiently express my regret at having kept you a prisoner in this blazing house?"
Had he stopped again? I was in such a state of inner perturbation that I hardly knew whether he had ceased to speak or I to hear.
"May I ask whom I have the honor of addressing?" he asked, in a tone I might better never have heard from his lips.
"I am Delight Hunter, a country girl, sir, visiting the Vandykes."
Then as my lips settled into a determined curve, he himself opened the door, and bowing low, asked if I would accept his protection to the gate.
Declining his offer with a wild shake of the head, I dashed from the house and fled with an incomprehensible sense of relief back to that of the Vandykes.
The servants, who had seen me rush toward Mr. Allison's, were still in the yard watching for me. I did not vouchsafe them a word. I could hardly formulate words in my own mind. A great love and a great dread had seized upon me at once.