"It is a pity to lose this," he said, "to know that it has gone for ever. Mary, you were better and braver far than you knew, when you turned your back on Dashwood Hall."
"Was I?" Mary asked absently. "It will always be a sadness and a sorrow to me, more from the knowledge of what I might have some day made the place than anything else. But I need not dwell on that. I have my living to get now."
"And I suppose I have mine," Ralph said. "Mary, you know what is on the tip of my tongue. Could you share that lot with me? But I know that you would; I know what your feelings are. You told me the night you came back here; you said that my prophecy had come true; that you had returned to ask my pardon on your knees. Do you regret that?"
"No," Mary said resolutely. "I do not regret it for a moment. Because it was true then, and it is truer now. It was Connie who taught me that lesson, I think. She pointed out to me what a good thing a man's love was. And when I thought that I had lost you, why, then I knew what my mind was. If I am worth the taking, Ralph----"
"My darling, you were always worth the taking," Ralph cried. "Even in the days of your pride I had dreams of the sweet Mary that would like you to love her, and behold, here she is! And you are prepared to share the lot of a poor man without even a pedigree?"
Mary swayed towards her lover, and he caught her in his eager arms. The next minute her face was hidden on his breast, happy tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Don't," she whispered. "Oh, please don't remind me of that, Ralph. From the bottom of my heart I love you; I must have loved you from the very first. What does it matter what you are, so long as you are what you are--a good man, with a kind heart for a foolish girl like me? I am prepared to share your lot, and go where you like, Ralph; anywhere you choose to take me. We shall be very poor, I suppose, but that does not matter. I am glad, glad that the day came when I had to leave the Hall."
"And if you never return you will not regret it, Mary?"
"No, Ralph, not with you by my side. And as to poverty, why, it could not be worse than what I have gone through lately. We shall be very poor, Ralph."
"Not so very poor," Ralph smiled. There was nobody near to see them, so the girl's head rested happily on Ralph's shoulder, his arm round her waist. "Dearest, I have a confession to make to you. We are not poor at all."
"But I thought that you had lost everything, Ralph. That Mr. Mayfield had your money. But don't let us talk about him. It makes me hot and cold all over. To think that at one time there was more than a possibility that I should----"
"No, there was never the slightest possibility," said Ralph. "I have had all the cards in the game from the very first. Mary, I am going to tell you a little story; it is the history of a man who passed most of his early life in America, where he did not see many people. He was quite a well-born man, but his father had quarrelled with his relatives, and so he had not all the advantages which were due to his station. But he was well brought up, and prided himself that he had a high sense of honour.
"Well, in time, he came to Europe, and then he met the one woman that he needed. She was very lovely, very proud, and very distant. But that young man could see what lay under her pride, and he determined to win her for his wife. She liked him, but she refused him. And for two years he did not meet her again. Then he came to England, and accident brought those two together again. In the meantime, the girl's father had come into possession of the family estates, and the girl was more proud and distant than ever. And still that young man was not dismayed.
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CHAPTER LIX. "LONG LIVE THE KING!"
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