She showed John the key, returned it to her pocket, made a courtesy, and moved slowly away, walking backward.
"Mistress Vernon," cried John, "I beg you to let me have the key."
"It is too late, now," said the girl, with downcast eyes. "Darkness is rapidly falling, and I must return to the Hall."
John began to climb the gate, but she stopped him. He had thrown away his opportunity.
"Please do not follow me, Sir John," said she, still moving backward. "I must not remain longer."
"Only for one moment," pleaded John.
"No," the girl responded, "I—I may, perhaps, bring the key when I come again. I am glad, Sir John, that you came to meet me this evening." She courtesied, and then hurried away toward Haddon Hall. Twice she looked backward and waved her hand, and John stood watching her through the bars till her form was lost to view beneath the crest of Bowling Green Hill.
"'I brought this key, thinking that you might wish to unlock the gate and come to this side,'" muttered John, quoting the girl's words. "Compared with you, John Manners, there is no other fool in this world." Then meditatively: "I wonder if she feels toward me as I feel toward her? Surely she does. What other reason could bring her here to meet me unless she is a brazen, wanton creature who is for every man." Then came a jealous thought that hurt him like the piercing of a knife. It lasted but a moment, however, and he continued muttering to himself: "If she loves me and will be my wife, I will—I will ... In God's name what will I do? If I were to marry her, old Vernon would kill her, and I—I should kill my father."
Then John mounted his horse and rode homeward the unhappiest happy man in England. He had made perilous strides toward that pinnacle sans honor, sans caution, sans conscience, sans everything but love.
That evening while we were walking on the battlements, smoking, John told me of his interview with Dorothy and extolled her beauty, grace, and winsomeness which, in truth, as you know, were matchless. But when he spoke of "her sweet, shy modesty," I came near to laughing in his face.