“Nothing that I can see,” he said, upon his return. “Why, of course! Clever dog! He scented a thief.”
“A thief?”
“Yes, my dear, a scoundrel come to try and steal away my darling girl.”
“Ah!”
A low sigh and a shiver of horror, as Dinah shrank away to flee into the house; but as she felt Clive’s arm tighten about her, she clung to him once more.
“Why, you silly child, don’t you understand a joke?” cried the Major. “I mean this fellow who is holding you fast; and you not shrinking in the least. But there! it is a time to be serious now. God bless you, Clive Reed! You have solved one difficulty in a declining life. I have often said to myself, ‘What is to become of my darling when I go?’ Now I know, and can go in peace.”
Two hours later, with the kisses of love moist upon his lips, Clive Reed started for his lonely walk back over the mountain-side.
End of Volume One.