Dunn made no answer, and Deede Dawson continued after a pause
“That's why I waited. You are being just a little bit rapid in this affair, aren't you?”
“I don't know why. You said something, didn't you?” muttered Dunn, beginning to think that, after all, Deede Dawson's presence here was due to accident—or rather to his unceasing and unfailing watchfulness, and not to any treachery of Ella's.
“Yes, I did, didn't I?” he agreed pleasantly. “But you are a working gardener taken on out of charity to give you a chance and keep you out of gaol, and you are looking a little high when you think of your master's ward and daughter, aren't you?”
“There was a time when I shouldn't have thought so,” answered Dunn.
“We're talking of the present, my good man,” Deede Dawson said impatiently. “If you want the girl you must win her. It can be done, but it won't be easy.”
“Tell me how,” said Dunn.
“Oh, that's going too fast and too far,” answered the other with his mirthless laugh. “Now, there's Mr. John Clive—what about him?”
“I'll answer for him,” replied Dunn slowly and thickly. “I've put better men than John Clive out of my way before today.”
“That's the way to talk,” cried Deede Dawson. “Dunn, dare you play a big game for big stakes?”