For a while, the joy of meeting was so great that all other things were forgotten; but Reginald could not long shut his eyes to the barrier which destiny and the will of Colonel Thorpe had placed between the lovers. He was still poor; he was not yet able to fulfil the colonel’s stipulation. But he had hopes, and these he could now breathe into Amy’s sympathetic ear.
‘What would you say, Amy, if I were to tell you that I am the bearer of good tidings?’
‘I should say the news might be too good to be true,’ replied Miss Thorpe. ‘O Reginald, it cannot be; you do not mean it?’
‘I do, Amy,’ answered the lieutenant. ‘For what purpose do you suppose I undertook this journey?’ he added, after a pause, and turning so as to face his fair companion.
The girl’s blue eyes opened to their fullest extent, and she answered in a slight tone of wonderment: ‘To see me. Was it not so, Reginald?’
‘It was, dearest,’ said the lieutenant; ‘but if I were to say that I came in search of you alone, my words would be false.’
‘Then pray, sir, may I not know your other reason?’ inquired Amy laughingly. ‘Have you an appointment to meet some other distressed damsel in these lonely parts?’
‘Nothing of the kind,’ replied Ainslie, more earnestly than the question seemed to warrant. ‘You alone, Amy, I came to see, and it is principally on your account that I am about to journey farther.’
‘On my account!’
‘Yes, Amy, yours; this journey is all for your sake. I will explain myself. For some time past, I have been urged to take a singular step by one who believes that our lost wealth may be actually regained. The idea is a vague and most likely a visionary one, and had I never met you, Amy, it is probable that the task of unravelling this coil might not have been essayed. It was Colonel Thorpe who clenched my half-hearted resolution by informing me that I must not hope to call you mine until possessed of sufficient affluence to maintain you in a position equal to that in which you had been brought up. Those words struck home. I instantly formed a fixed determination, and am now about to follow it up, for which purpose I intend to start this very afternoon.’