“I will get my sister to accompany me to keep me in order.” Julia gladly agreed to bear him company.
“Thank you, dear Julia,” said Harry, as soon as they were in the saddle. “We must go to Downside; I cannot exist another day without seeing May.”
Julia nodded her consent.
“I thought she would have written to me, but I have my fears that either our good cousins have forbidden her to write or that her letters may have been stopped,” he continued. “Did you write to her?” asked Julia.
“No, but I sent messages, and as the only person I could trust to take a letter declined doing so, I could not order a groom to take one, as I had my suspicions that it might be stopped or opened; besides, I have that confidence in May’s love that I felt sure she would be content to wait till we could again meet, hearing in the meantime that I was rapidly recovering.”
“You acted wisely,” said Julia, “for it is impossible to say how our cousins may think it their duty to behave towards you in future.”
She then told Harry of their father’s visit to Downside, of the result of which she herself was ignorant.
“I am sorely tempted to set my father at defiance, and, if he refuses his consent, to marry without it.”
“No, no, Harry—patience! May would never consent to such a course.”
“Why, Julia, what do you intend to do?” asked Harry, wrongly feeling for the moment that even she had turned against him.