‘It is very dreadful,’ sighed Mary.  ’If her ladyship were as well and as active as she was when first you came to Fellside, she could have helped me; but now there will be no one, except you.  And you will help me, won’t you Jack?’

‘With all my heart.’

‘My own true Jack,’ with a little fervent squeeze of his sunburnt hand.  ’In society I suppose I shall have to call you Hartfield.  “Hartfield, please ring the bell.”  “Give me a footstool, Hartfield.”  How odd it sounds.  I shall be blurting out the old dear name.’

’I don’t think it will much matter.  It will pass for one of Lady Hartfield’s little ways.  Every woman is supposed to have little ways, don’t you know.  One has a little way of dropping her friends; another has a little way of not paying her dressmaker; another’s little way is to take too much champagne.  I hope Lady Hartfield’s little way will be her devotion to her husband.’

’I’m afraid I shall end by being a nuisance to you, for I shall love you ridiculously,’ answered Mary, gaily; ’and from what you have told me about society, it seems to me that there can be nothing so unfashionable as an affectionate wife.  Will you mind my being quite out of fashion, Jack?’

‘I should very much object to your being in the fashion.’

’Then I am happy.  I don’t think it is in my nature to become a woman of fashion; although I have cured myself, for your sake, of being a hoyden.  I had so schooled myself for what I thought our new life was to be; so trained myself to be a managing economical wife, that I feel quite at sea now that I am to be mistress of a house in Grosvenor Square and a place in Kent.  Still, I will bear with it all; yes, even endure the weight of those diamonds for your sake.’

She laughed, and he laughed.  They were quite alone among the hills—­hardy mountaineers both—­and they could be as foolish as they liked.  She rested her head upon his shoulder, and he and she and the pony made one as they climbed the hill, close together.

‘Our last day,’ sighed Mary, as they went down again, after a couple of blissful hours in that wild world between earth and sky.  ’I shall be glad to go back to poor grandmother, who must be sadly lonely; but it is so sweet to be quite alone with you.’

They left the Lodore Hotel in an open carriage, after luncheon next day, and posted to Fellside, where they arrived just in time to assist at Lady Maulevrier’s afternoon tea.  She received them both with warm affection, and made Hartfield sit close beside her sofa; and every now and then, in the pauses of their talk, she laid her wasted and too delicate fingers upon the young man’s strong brown hand, with a caressing gesture.

‘You can never know how sweet it is to me to be able to love you,’ she said tenderly.  ’You can never know how my heart yearned to you from the very first, and how hard it was to keep myself in check and not be too kind to you.  Oh, Hartfield, you should have told me the truth.  You should not have come here under false colours.’