"If you will please get off my basket-chaise, sir, I'll drive on."
But he did not stir. Miss Dallory played with the reins again.
"Mary, how can I? If you had nothing, it would be different. I cannot live at Dallory Hall.
"No one else ever shall." But Richard had to bend to catch the whisper.
"The community would cry shame upon me. Upon that poor working man, Richard North."
"How dare you call yourself names, Mr. Richard? You are a gentleman."
"What would John and Francis say?"
"What they pleased. Francis likes you better than any one in the world; better than--well, yes, sir--better than I do."
He had taken one of her hands now. She knew, she had known a long while, how it was with him--that he loved her passionately, but would never, under his altered circumstances, tell her so. And, moreover, she knew that he was aware she knew it.
"But Mary, since--since before you returned from Switzerland up to this hour, I have not dared to think the old hopes could be carried out, even in my own heart."