'Why not? I've a mind to bring you and her together.'
'Father,' I said, 'you have forgotten Cuthbert and my promise.'
He made no reply for a few minutes, and then, as, he knocked the ashes out of his pipe, he said, 'Cuthbert's dead.'
I leant my head down upon my arm, without the heart to-night to go over the old ground.
'Well!' said my father at last, when the pipe was out and the fire had almost smouldered away.
I shook my head. 'Cuthbert trusted me, and after all he may be living yet.'
'Not he.' He took his stick, and as he got up slowly from his arm-chair to go to bed, he added, 'You should think a bit of Hildred, too, Willie.'
'Of Hildred!'
'She gave Cuthbert up for dead long ago, and she sees you mostly every day.'
With that he went upstairs, leaning on my shoulder, and would not say another word except 'Good night.'