"Dare say I might."
"I am sure of it; and that would have ruined all. The Squire would have laid his positive embargo on the marriage, for I was one of the hated Denisons; and he would have extorted a promise from Miss Winter never to see more of me during his life or after it. So I maintained my incognito to her, and said nothing to you. I might have spoken after the Squire's death, that's true enough; but I wanted her to care for myself alone, not for my prospective fortune. I very nearly told you at Christmas, father; but I thought I would wait just a little longer. Last week I went down to Nunham Priors for the purpose, but found you absent. To-morrow I intended to start for Nunham Priors again, expecting you would by that time be at home."
"He should take out a licence for special pleading, he should!" interjected Mr. Denison to Ella. "To hear the neat way he twists and turns things! Where you got your gift o' the gab from, Frank, I don't know. Not from me."
Frank smiled.
"It is true pleading, father. And you need no longer be under the fear that I shall bring home a black wife."
"There's some sense in the 'Dougal creature' yet," muttered the old gentleman, with a flourish of his pocket-handkerchief. "Ah, my dear, what, can I say to him, in what terms can I scold him, when he proffers you to me as his excuse? I can only forgive him, yes, were it a thousand times over!" He drew her to him, and kissed her very tenderly. "You shall be as my daughter--as my own child to me in every way. Heaven has been kinder to me than my deserts--and I am quite sure it has to Frank! And now there will no longer be any question of your quitting the old homestead here."
"But it is yours, sir," answered Ella, through her tears.
"My dear, it is Frank's from this day. I shall never quit my own home of many years. Good gracious! how would all the bric-a-brac be packed and moved? I'll come and see you both here as often as it suits me, and you must come in turn to me."
"And you will stay with me a few days now, to begin with, won't you?" pleaded the grateful girl. "Aunt Gertrude is here, you know."
"Won't say but I will, my dear. I should like to see a bit more of the old family place."