“I suppose so.”
“Oh, then you don't remember doing it, eh?”
“No; that I don't.”
“Then what makes you think you did?”
“Because they say so. Because I must have been such an awful cad if I didn't. And I was always much fonder of you than you were of me. My tippet! I'd give my head sooner than any harm should come to you, Ruperta!”
Ruperta made no reply, but, being now at Highmore, she put out her hand to him, and turned her head away. He kissed her hand devotedly, and so they parted.
Compton told Lady Bassett all that happened, and Ruperta told Mrs. Bassett.
Those ladies readily promised to be on the side of peace, but they feared it could only be the work of time, and said so.
By-and-by Compton got impatient, and told Ruperta he had thought of a way to compel their fathers to be friends. “I am afraid you won't like the idea at first,” said he; “but the more you think of it, the more you will see it is the surest way of all.”
“Well, but what is it?”