"'Through regions by wild men and cannibals haunted,
Old Dame Lovey Lee goes alone and undaunted;
But, bless you, the risk's not so great as it's reckoned;
She's too plain for the first and too tough for the second!'"
"He may laugh at her," replied John Lee. "But she don't laugh at him. When he'd gone that day, she told me that he was the first man ever she clapped eyes on as could be her master if he liked; and I shivered to hear her say it."
"He's welcome to be her master; he never shall be mine," said Grace resolutely; and as she spoke, her father suddenly appeared before them.
CHAPTER XI
MALHERB'S IDEA
John Lee touched his hat, while Grace rose and welcomed her father, who, still dominated by his Idea, proved in a very amiable mood.
"You grow fast—you'll be as tall as your grandmother at this rate. Not that you are like her," he said to the lad. John smiled and touched his hat again.
Malherb scanned the finely built youngster, and thought of his dead son. There was a resemblance, as Grace recently remarked to John himself, and the father, who had a picture of Noel Malherb painted lifelike upon memory, now perceived this similitude. For a moment he stared in silence, then turned to Grace.
"I seek your mother. Has she gone to visit Lady Tyrwhitt?"
"Yes, she is at Tor Royal, father. Indeed, she should be on her way home again by this time."