"Have you and Alice been quarrelling?" asked Alice's father abruptly.
Dick answered simply that they had. Colonel Bristo silently paced the carpet. When he spoke again it was to revert to the subject of Miles.
"Yes, I am sorry enough to lose him; for we had become great friends, intimate friends, and we understood one another thoroughly, he and I. But the worst of it is, we shan't have him with us in Yorkshire. What a man for the moors! And how he would have enjoyed it! But there; it's no use talking; we're all disappointed, and there's an end of it."
The Colonel laid his hand on Dick's shoulder, and added:
"You won't disappoint us, my boy?"
"For the moors, sir?"
"Why, of course."
"I cannot go—I am very sorry"—hastily—"but——"
"Nonsense, Dick!"
"I really cannot—I cannot, indeed," with lame repetition.