"I should rather think so. It would be just lovely. Only," continued the boy, with a dubious glance at his garments, "Sarah will say I had no business to go without being dressed up, you know. Can you wait for me a few minutes, whilst I run in and tell her?"
"Your clothes are all right, Ralph. You only want a wash and a brush up, which you shall have at the Hall, whilst we are having ours, you know," replied Kathleen, quickly. She had asked the boy to accompany them on a momentary impulse, but was not prepared to drive into the grounds and wait at the entrance of Monk's How until Ralph's toilet had been performed to Sarah's satisfaction.
So the message was left, and much to Mountain's disgust, the boy, instead of being dropped at the lodge, accompanied the girls to the Hall.
"That's the first move," growled Mountain to himself, as he turned his horses towards the stables. "The father came with our young lady to the gates, the other day; the boy is in the house. One more step, and the captain as they call him, will follow. If I could but—" Here Mountain paused, and whatever he further thought must be guessed.
[CHAPTER XIII]
A HOPELESS SUITOR
RALPH made good use of his time at the Hall. He was in some respects so manly, in others such a thorough child, but in every way so outspoken, that not only Kathleen but Mrs. Ellicott and Geraldine were charmed with the boy.
Even Mountain thawed when the little fellow visited the stables, and made some knowing remarks about the animals he saw there.
"He might ha' been his own father by the way he reckoned up the horses," said Mountain afterwards. "And he is a little gentleman in his ways. If he only hadn't got a father at all, I'd never mind how often he was in and out here."
When Aylmer Matheson paid his next visit to the Hall, he was entertained, if not gratified, by an account of Ralph's sayings and doings. He heard Kathleen say that she must really ask the boy now and then, he was so delightfully bright and original; he had given them all something to talk and laugh over after he left them.