"Oh!" cried Tilly.
"I'm off," said Richard shortly, banging down his valise on the table.
"Off!—where?"
"To London."
Tilly gaped at him.
"I'm sick of all this, I'm sick of the old man and his beastliness. Miss Bardon is lending me money to go to London University, and perhaps I shall read for the Bar."
"The Bar," repeated Tilly vaguely.
"Yes, I've learned a heap of Latin and other things during the last five years, and two or three years at the University ought to be all I want. Miss Bardon's taught me—I owe everything to her."
"I must say as how you've kept it dark."
She knew of his friendship with Anne Bardon, but had never expected it to bear such generous fruit.