He held her tightly to him, and felt the throbbing heart and heaving breast gradually calm down.
“Then you love him very dearly, Dinah?”
She raised her pale face, and looked full in his eyes, gazing at him in silence for a few minutes before she replied simply—
“Yes, father, I love him very dearly.”
The Major drew a long breath as he nodded his head slowly.
“Yes,” he said, “and it is a different love to that of a child for her father. It will not make any difference, dear? I know; you need not tell me. I shall not grow to be a lonely, desolate old man.” Dinah’s arms stole round his neck, and she laid her cheek to his.
“You know that, dear,” she whispered. “How could it make any difference to us?”
“No; it can make no difference, my darling, save make me the happier. But only to think of it. Which of us could have said a few months ago that our quiet life here would be changed as it has been, I turning into a greedy speculator and holder of mining shares, the most ephemeral of property, and you giving your treasure to this base intruder—no, no, I mean this prince in disguise, who came to the castle to ask for my hospitality. Ah! we can’t see into the future.”
“Why did you buy those shares, dear?” asked Dinah, as she rested her head upon his shoulder.
“Hang the shares! they are an excitement and worry. No, no, they are not. It’s quite right. I’ll tell you: I bought them because I wanted my darling to be independent and far above want when I go away on the long journey!”