From thenceforward no solicitation could prevail upon Alison Cheyne to ride one of Lord Cadbury's horses again, passionately as she loved equestrian exercise; and her persistent refusal greatly puzzled the amorous peer, and annoyed Sir Ranald.
Two longings grew strong in the girl's heart—one to be rich and independent of all monetary considerations, as her family once was; the other, that her father would moderate his ambition to their present circumstances, and cease repining; but pride made him revolt against them, as not being the inevitable, while she had—as he thought—a well-gilded coronet lying at her feet.
As to any secret fancies Alison might have, or her 'chance-medley' friend Captain Goring either, he barely gave them a minute's consideration, as being too preposterous, if indeed he considered them at all.
Goring had no one to consult or regard—father, nor mother, nor brother; he was alone in the world now, and the entire master of his own means, if somewhat slender, and he longed now indeed for some one to love, and love him in return.
He brooded over the past, and it was a strange coincidence that he should have worn for so long a time, in that far away land of the sun, Ellon's ring with her hair and her likeness in it, all unknown to himself; and of that circumstance he was never weary pondering, and drawing therefrom much romantic and lover-like comfort.
It seemed to establish a link—a tie—between them!
But Bevil remembered what he had seen of Cadbury at Chilcote; this latter's presents incidentally referred to; his proffered mounts, and, more than all, the observations of Mrs. Trelawney and others; hence his tongue was tied and his heart seemed to die within him. What had he compared with Cadbury to offer worthy the consideration of a man like Sir Ranald Cheyne?
He had not been slow to divine, to detect, the footing on which the former stood with the latter—a proud, impoverished, and embittered man, and a lover's active imagination, full of fears and doubts and jealousies, did the rest.
He actually avoided Chilcote, for he knew that any intercourse there would be restricted and restrained.
'To meet her again and again is only playing with fire,' he thought. 'For her own sake and mine it is a perilous game.'