'You mustn't abuse my picture. I used to spend hours wondering if those horsemen galloping so madly through the wood were robbers, and if they had robbed the castle shown between the trees. I used to wonder if they would succeed in escaping. They wouldn't gallop their horses like that unless they were being pursued.... Can I have the picture?'
'Of course you can. Is that—that is not all you are going to ask me for?'
'I did think of asking you for a few more things. Do you mind?'
'No, not the least. The more you ask for, the more I shall be pleased.'
'Then you must come down-stairs.'
They went down to the next landing. Emily stopped before a bed-room, and, looking at Hubert shyly and interrogatively, she said—
'This is my room. I don't know if it is in a fit state to show you. I'm not a very tidy girl. I'll look first.'
'Yes; it will do,' she said, drawing back. 'You can look in. I want you to give me that wardrobe. It isn't a very handsome one, but I've used it ever since I was a little girl; it has a hollow top, and I used to hide things there. Do you think you can spare it?'
'Yes; I think I can,' he said, smiling.
Then she led him up-stairs through the old lumber rooms, picking out here and there some generally broken and always worthless piece of furniture, pleading for it timidly, and strangely delighted when he nodded, granting her every request. She asked him to pull out what she had chosen from the débris, and a curious collection they made in the passage—dim and worm-eaten pictures, small book-cases, broken vases which she proposed mending.