"With all my heart, dear," said Mary, crying gently.
He put both arms suddenly round her neck and kissed her wet eyes with a sigh of despair. Then he seemed to tear himself away by a great effort, and she leaned limp and powerless on the gate, and heard his footsteps die away into the night. They struck chill upon her foreboding heart, for she felt that they were parted.
CHAPTER X.
THE GORDIAN KNOT.
Walter, however, would not despair until he had laid the alternative before his father. He did so, firmly but coolly.
His father, irritated by the scene with Bartley, treated Walter's proposal with indignant scorn.
Walter continued to keep his temper, and with some reluctance asked him whether he owed nothing, not even a sacrifice of his prejudices, to a son who had never disobeyed him, and had improved his circumstances.
"Come, sir," said he; "when the happiness of my life is at stake I venture to lay aside delicacy, and ask you whether I have not been a good son, and a serviceable one to you?"
"Yes, Walter," said the Colonel, "with this exception."
"Then now or never give me my reward."