"Oh, Mr. Fitzmorris, you are so good and truthful, it is impossible to be angry with you long; and I was angry with you for speaking so harshly of poor Lord Wilton, but I love you all the better now, for confessing so frankly that you were in error."
She held out her hand as she spoke. Gerard took it, and pressed it reverentially.
"We are friends then?"
"Yes. I hope for ever."
"Amen!" said her companion heartily; "and now, little one, no more sentimentality, but let us go to work."
Shouldering the carpet-bag across his stick, the vicar led the way over the lawn, and on to the heath.
"Where are we going?" asked Dorothy, not a little amused at the decided manner in which her companion took to the road.
"Do you know a place called Hog Lane, at the bottom of the heath, on the east side, where it slopes down to the salt flats?"
"Yes, I have been there looking for the cows with Gilbert."
"And who is Gilbert?"