‘I don’t see why, I am sure. Who has so good a right as you to be here?’
He laughed. ‘If I were obliged to bring a lawsuit for the restitution of my property, I should like you to be the defendant,’ he said. ‘I should win in a canter.’
Nita was silent.
‘At least, I shall not be far away from the Abbey,’ he went on, ‘and I am glad of it. You will let me come up and see you, I hope, sometimes, though I don’t hope for such privileges as Leyburn enjoys.’
‘John is like one of ourselves,’ said Nita, originally.
‘And I am not. I know that, and am constantly reminded of it.’
‘Shall you send for your sister now?’ asked Nita.
‘Not at once. I must wait till things are a little more certain. I am getting on in my lessons at Burnham. I know how to do book-keeping now, and your father has so much foreign correspondence that he says I shall be of use to him.’
‘Do not speak in that way!’ exclaimed Nita; ‘you know I hate it.’
‘I only do it in the hope of making you see how reasonable it all is, and how absurd it would be in me to expect anything else, and how lucky I may feel myself.’