"I don't know."
"If I am to help, you must tell me something more, Dolly."
"Yes, but I cannot. Oh, if you knew, you would know that I cannot. I think perhaps you ought to know,—but I cannot tell you! I don't see how I can tell you!"
"Then do not try to tell me, until we are married," said he soothingly. "It will be easier then."
"But I think you ought to know before," said Dolly, and he felt how she trembled in his arms. "If you don't know, you will not be able to understand"——
"What?" for Dolly paused.
"What I do. You will not understand it."
"What are you going to do?" said Mr. Shubrick, smiling; she knew he was smiling. "You are going home to be ready to meet me; and the day I come, we are going to be married. Then you can tell me what you like. Hey?"
"But you don't know!" cried Dolly. "I can't tell when we shall go home. I don't know whether father will quit England for all I can say. I don't know whether he will ever quit it!"
"Then, as I remarked before, I will have the honour to come to England and fetch you."