"Loneliness is a thing we have all to face," said Parson Ewan sadly; "but there is no need to trouble about it until it comes. Rest assured that when it does, with God's grace you will bear it. The vicarage is not far from Holt Farm, and there is Jessie."
"You are right," said Patience, and a slight colour crept over her face; "besides, we are talking as if Agnes were married and gone, and we do not even know that she thinks of either love or marriage."
"Just so," said the parson; "as I told you, you were taking trouble by the forelock."
Their last halting-place was at Appleby, which was but a short distance from De Lisle Abbey.
"Would you like me to take Agnes over to see the old home?" asked Mr. Ewan the following morning.
"No," said Patience; "she shall not go there until it is her own, and that may never be. I have had no answer from the king."
"All in good time," said Mr. Ewan, and he smiled, for he had had a conversation with Reginald and Delarry the morning before they started, when he had learnt the king's pleasure, "that De Lisle Abbey was to be restored to Agnes, and that Reginald was to go a-courting."
"I don't think he will need to do that long," Delarry had said. "Agnes has always been his sweetheart."
"Ah, but I was a rich man in those days, now I possess nothing! You know this full well, Delarry, seeing you have had no dower with Ann, and I can give you none."
"I am quite content," said Delarry.