* * * * *
But it was not only of Dolly that I had learned my lessons; it was of myself also. I was astonished how inevitable it appeared to me now that we should be riding together on such terms; and I understood that never, for one instant, all through this miserable year away from her, had I ever, interiorly, loosed my hold upon her. Beneath all my resolutions and wilful distractions the intention had persevered. All the while I was saying to myself in my own mind that I should never see Dolly again, something that was not my mind—(I suppose my heart)—was telling me the precise opposite. Well; the heart had been right, after all.
* * * * *
She asked me presently what I should say to her father.
"I shall forgive him a great deal now, that I thought I never should,"
I said with wonderful magnanimity. "A few sharp words only, and no more.
You see, my dear, it was through his sending you to Court—"
"Yes: yes," she said.
"He has behaved abominably, however," I said, "and I shall tell him so.
Dolly, my love."
"Yes," said she.
"I must go back very soon to town. I have been offered a piece of work; and even if I do not accept it, I must speak of it to them."
"Them?"