"Is that it?" he said very tenderly. "And you thought I was sleeping like a hog and didn't know?"
She laughed rather tremulously, her face turned from him. "It isn't always possible to bury the past, is it, however hard we try? I hope you'll make allowances for that, Dick, if ever I shock your sense of propriety."
"I shall make allowances," he said, "because you are the one and only woman I worship—or have ever worshipped—and I can't see you in any other light."
"How dear of you, Dicky!" she murmured. "And how rash!"
"Am I such an unutterable prig?" he said. "I feel myself that I have got extra fastidious since knowing you."
She laughed at that, and after a moment turned with impulsive sweetness and put her cigarette between his lips. "You're not a prig, darling. You are just an honourable and upright gentleman whom I am very proud to belong to and with whom I always feel I have got to be on my best behaviour. What have you been doing all this time? I should have come to look for you if Saltash hadn't turned up."
Dick's brows were slightly drawn. "I've been talking to Jack," he said.
"Jack!" She opened her eyes. "Dick! I hope you haven't been quarrelling!"
He smiled at her anxious face, though somewhat grimly. "My dear, I don't quarrel with people like Jack. I came upon him at the school. I don't know why he was hanging round there. He certainly didn't mean me to catch him. But as I did so, I took the opportunity for a straight talk—with the result that he leaves this place to-morrow—for good."
"My dear Dick! What will the squire say?"