"But you——" began the boy.
Maureen's little hand closed his lips.
"Don't say the word—don't—don't. Only I will tell you now that by the exceeding greatness of my hatred so also is the depth and passion of my love."
"You are like no one else, Maureen," said Dominic.
He went away soberly and gravely. He had not ventured to tell Maureen, in her present mood, that he was obliged on account of this arrangement to give up Rugby for good, that those glorious years of schoolboy life in one of the greatest public schools were to be denied him. He knew well, only too well, that it was impossible for his father to be left alone. Well, it could not be helped.
But Maureen was looking at him with an intense light in her eyes.
"Boykins, what's troubling ye, avick?"
"Oh, nothing, darling, nothing."
"Boy, there is. Out with it to Maureen this minute."
"It's only this. I'm just so beastly selfish. I did so want to go to Rugby, and the Headmaster says he will not take me unless I join the school at the autumn term, which is close at hand now. I felt somehow as though it was such a golden chance. I can't help saying it, Maureen; I did look forward to it. But I ask you, dearest and best, can I leave the old man alone with his trouble—alone, quite alone—with only servants to see after him?"