“You haven’t got your man with you, I think, Mr. Walton?”
“No,” I answered; “we thought it better to leave him to look after the boys.”
He was silent for a few minutes, while I gazed in delight.
“Don’t you think,” he said, “it would be possible to bring Miss Constance up here?”
I almost started at the idea, and had not replied before he resumed:
“It would be something for her to recur to with delight all the rest of her life.”
“It would indeed. But it is impossible.”
“I do not think so—if you would allow me the honour to assist you. I think we could do it perfectly between us.”
I was again silent for a while. Looking down on the way we had come, it seemed an almost dreadful undertaking. Percivale spoke again.
“As we shall come here to-morrow, we need not explore the place now. Shall we go down at once and observe the whole path, with a view to the practicability of carrying her up?”