“You must hear what I have to say before you go,” he said curtly. “We are not likely to meet again for some time if we part now. I intend to leave England.”
She looked at him at those words, but he was at a loss to divine the meaning of the look.
“You are leaving England?” A quick ear would have caught a strange note in her soft voice. “Oh, but you cannot—you have responsibilities.”
“Are you thinking of the title, and your father’s money?” he observed, glancing at her curiously. “What do you know about it, Sisily?”
“I have heard of nothing but the title ever since I can remember,” she replied.
“I learnt for the first time this afternoon that I was brought down here to rob you,” he said gloomily.
“I am glad for your sake if you are to have it—the money,” she simply replied.
He answered with a bitter, almost vengeful aspect.
“I would not take the money or the title, if they ever came to me. They should be yours. I will show them. I will let them know that they cannot do what they like with me.” He brought out this obscure threat in a savage voice. “If I had only known—if I had guessed that your father—” He ceased abruptly, with a covert glance, like one fearing he had said too much.
She kept her eyes fixed on the lengthening shadows around the rocks.