Then Walter commenced his attack. For a time Sarah heard what he urged with a flushed cheek and a heaving bosom, but in silence. At length she said—
"And that is what you have got to tell me; and that is your love for me, is it, Walter?"
And then, having recovered her thoughts, she found words for them, as volubly at least as Walter had found words for his. A small part of the dialogue has already been given at the commencement of this chapter, and the two misguided and mistaken young persons were still in the flushed and fevered excitement of their lovers' quarrel, when, just as they emerged into the open garden, heavy, stumbling footsteps approached, unnoticed by them, however, till the thick and uncertain voice of Mark Wilson fell upon their ears in some such words as these—
"Ho! Ho! Master Walter; so you are turned up, are you? Now, let me tell you, you are come where you are not wanted, not a bit of it. It'll be time enough for you to be poking about these premises when your father has got the farm; and the sooner you make yourself scarce now the better. And you, girl, had better go indoors and see to your mother, and your proper work."
"Father, father!" cried the agitated girl, very softly, for if she felt angry with her lover, and reproachfully towards him, her heart was not so untrue to him as he thought it to be.
"And you needn't think, Master Walter, that Sarah is anything to you any more, or you to her," the insensate man went on, without heeding his daughter's agonised look. "We've a better match in store, and a better husband, too, haven't we, girl? You've heard of Master Tincroft, I daresay, nephew; and if you haven't, you may hear of him now. A true gentleman, and none of your low-bred sort, like you; and coming into a fortune, too, when he gets his rights. There, what do you think of that?"
Until the sot came to this pause it was next to impossible for either the daughter or nephew to say a word to any effect. Now, however, the voice of Sarah rang through the air, in a long wailing cry—
"Oh, father, father! What have you done? What have you said?"
"Nothing but the truth, and I am obliged to him for saying it, if for nothing else," said Walter, bitterly. "There is no need for more words," he added, "except to say that I won't trespass on forbidden grounds any longer. Good-bye, Sarah. It is all over between us two now."
And the young man walked rapidly away.