"Oh, very good," he went on. "I'll let him know to-morrow morning that he may come along here and see you if he likes. I don't expect he will lose very much time. What! crying, little girl? Come, come, you mustn't cry. Crying spoils the eyes. Besides, it is time we were both in bed."
She kissed him more than once, and then ran hurriedly out of the room.
On the following afternoon she went for a walk through the plantation alone.
"He will come this way," she said to herself. "He will be sure to come this way. He knows it is my favourite walk."
She walked slowly, but with every sense alert. She knew that her father had been to see Ralph, and, of course, he would be impatient to see her. If he were half as impatient as she was he would be on his way now.
She espied him at length a long way down the road, and she drew back a little in the shadow of the trees and waited. Her heart was beating very fast, and happy tears kept welling up into her eyes.
She was looking away from him when at length he came upon her.
"Dorothy!" he said, in a voice that thrilled her like a strain of music.
"Yes, Ralph," and she turned her perfect face full upon him.
"Your father said I might come."