Happily for that individual, now so unconscious of evil, nearly an hour elapsed after this ere the boat reached the landing-place near the Hall. There stood Hobby.
“I am truly glad to see you—that I am!” he exclaimed, honest satisfaction lighting up his countenance. “I was terribly alarmed you would never get back of your own selves—indeed I was, let me tell you.”
Ralph was going to make an angry reply to what he considered Hobby’s impertinent remarks, but Lilly interrupted him—
“You are right, John Hobby,” she said, kindly. “If it had not been for our friend Arnold here, we might never have got back at all; and had we followed your advice we should have saved ourselves a great deal of anxiety, and not have been exposed to the great danger from which we have been preserved.”
“As to the danger, it’s all well that ends well, Miss,” remarked Hobby, bluntly. “But I do hope Master Ralph won’t be taking you on the water again till he’s learnt to row properly.”
“Make the boat fast, and take the oars away with you!” exclaimed Ralph, walking off homewards.
“Stop, cousin! You have not thanked Arnold, or asked him to come up to the Hall, where I am sure Uncle and Aunt Clavering would wish to see him,” cried Lilly; but Ralph was so angry with Hobby’s remarks, that he would not return.
“Do not trouble him, young lady,” said Arnold, casting a glance after the young heir of Clavering Hall, in which he did not conceal his contempt. “I do not require his thanks, nor any reward from him or his. You show me by your looks that you thank me, and that pays me more than enough.”
“Oh, but his father and mother will not be satisfied with that; they will wish to repay you,” answered Lilly. “And besides, your wife and children are not well off; some money or some clothing will be of use to them, surely.”
“I’ll not deny it; but we value such things less than you fancy, young lady,” said the gipsy. “We have enough for the present, and we do not trouble ourselves much as to what is to come. But I won’t keep you talking. The young gentleman has just remembered that he ought to wait for you, and is sitting down on the bank there. He thinks himself very rich and very important, and that he can do everything, I daresay; but if he knew all about himself that I know about him, he would act more kindly towards others and think less of himself. You may tell him so whenever you like from me.”