When she had spoken, she hid her hot face in her hands, and cried silently.
There was absolute stillness in the room for some minutes. At length she looked up and saw Mr. Bragg still sitting as before, with loosely clasped hands and downcast eyes. May rose to her feet, and said timidly, "I hope you are not angry with me for—for telling you?"
Mr. Bragg stood up also, and placing one broad, powerful hand on her head, as a father might have done, looked down gravely at her upturned face.
"Angry! Lord bless you, my child, what must I be made of to be angry with you?"
"Oh, thank you, Mr. Bragg! And will you promise—but I know you will—not to betray me?"
He did not notice this question. His mind was working uneasily. He thrust his hands into his pockets, and walked to the other side of the room and back, before saying—
"This person that you've promised to marry, is he one that your people here"—he jerked his head over his shoulder in the direction in which Mrs. Dormer-Smith had disappeared—"would approve of?"
"Oh, yes!" answered May. Then she added, not quite so confidently, "I think so. At any rate, I am very proud to be loved by him."
"And Mrs. Dobbs—"
"Oh, of course, dear Granny thinks no one could be too good for me," said May apologetically. "But she knows his worth."