“It’s off, Dick—off! I gave him his dismissal the moment I heard—”
“Did your father tell you I was alive?”
“No, your grandfather told me.”
“Ye gods! You don’t mean to say you’ve seen him!”
“Yes, Dick, and I think he’s the dearest old man alive. He was most charming. He isn’t really a bit horrid. My letter dismissing Mr. Ormsby was posted at his own request. So, if you want me, Dick, I am yours still. More wonderful still, he told me things I could hardly believe.”
“He’s a frightful old liar, is grandfather.”
“I don’t think he was lying, Dick. You’ll laugh at his latest eccentricity. He told me he would alter his will and leave everything to me—not to you—to me.”
“But why?”
“Well, I suppose—I suppose that he thought—”
Dora played with the fringe of the rug on Dick’s knee as she still knelt by his side, and seemed embarrassed.