"Then, by ----, I will--" cried Robert, with an angry look; but there he stopped, and, spreading out the sheet, read as follows:
"I am here in bondage, dearest love; if you do but love me half as much as you have sworn, come and deliver me. My father nor brother do not know all, or nearly all; but you know that the truth can not long be concealed. I am ready to fly with you, as you used to ask me, to the world's end: only come--and come as fast as possible. There is nothing to stop us here. Come, then, to your unhappy Kate Stilling."
The place from which the letter was dated was A small town in Dorsetshire, and the date itself three days before.
Robert Woodhall smiled as he mused over those few lines, and then he turned to the address again, and seemed to consider it attentively, muttering, "Master R. Woodhall."
"You see, sir," said his servant, "one can not tell whether it is for you or your cousin, Master Ralph."
"What the devil do you mean?" cried his master, fixing his eyes eagerly upon him.
"Why simply, sir," replied the man, "that it would make a desperate good handle against him if it fell into the hands of the other."
"I think I understand you, Roger," said his master, in a much more placable tone; "but Ralph does not even know my fair Kate."
"We can not tell that, sir," answered the servant; "he was over at Coldenham lately."
"Only one day," replied Robert, "and soon got his answer from my mother."