“No, and when she was out here, she never told me that you were at home on leave.”
“I suppose she thinks silence is best—and that all is over.” Seeing Letty’s bare hand lying on the rail, he took it up, and said:
“I say, you don’t mean that you are still wearing that fellow’s ring!”
In another second, it was removed from her finger, the next, it glittered through the sunshine, and fell into the blue water, with a faint splash.
“Oh!” she stammered, “how dared you? how could you?”
“How could you, Letty?”
“Well, I shall have to replace it at once.—I wonder if Cara will miss it?”
“What harm if she does! Look here, Letty, I believe good fortune deliberately arranged this meeting, and now I intend to make hay whilst the sun shines. Will you marry me, and come with me to India?”
“Lancelot!” she exclaimed, raising a scared face to his. “You take my breath away. Are you crazy?”
“Never more absolutely sane, or sensible, in my life. We have lived down scandal, I hope and believe, and what is there now to stand between us? Blagdon is by all accounts consoled—I say no more—and you are free. Do you return to the farm by the next boat, make all arrangements, pack, and order what you require in the way of outfit in Lucerne. For my part, I shall look up the Consul, and the chaplain, wire for another passage, and as Mrs. Lumley, you will sail from Genoa this day week.”