'Only on the old sore subject. She is very unhappy, Richard; she wants you to go oftener. You do her father good.'
'But she looked pale to-night. She is not in fresh trouble, is she, Aunt Milly?'
'No, only the misunderstanding gets more every day; we must all do what we can to lighten her load.'
Richard made no answer, he seemed thinking deeply; even after Mildred left him he remained in the same place.
'One of these days she must know it, and why not now?' he said to himself, and there was a strange concentrated light in his eyes as he said it.
CHAPTER XIX
THE HEART OF CŒUR-DE-LION
'At length, as suddenly become aware
Of this long pause, she lifted up her face,
And he withdrew his eyes—she looked so fair
And cold, he thought, in her unconscious grace.
Ah! little dreams she of the restless care,
He thought, that makes my heart to throb apace:
Though we this morning part, the knowledge sends
No thrill to her calm pulse—we are but Friends!'
Jean Ingelow.