“See here, Philip,” began Mr. Cressy as they descended the Hill in “Lizzie.”  “I went at this all wrong.  So did Carlotta.  I understand better now.  I’ve been back in the past this afternoon, remembering what it means to live in the country and love and mate there in the good old-fashioned way as Carlotta’s mother and I did.  It is what I want her to do with you.  Do you get that, boy?  I want her to come to Dunbury.  I want her to have a piece of your mother.  Carlotta never knew what it was to have a mother.  It is mostly my fault she doesn’t see any clearer.  You mustn’t blame her, lad.”

“I don’t,” said Phil.  “I love her.”

“I know you do.  And she loves you.  Go to her.  Make her see.  Make her marry you and be happy.”

Phil was silent, not because he was not moved by the older man’s plea but because he was almost too moved to speak.  It rather took his breath away to have Harrison Cressy on his side like this.  It was almost too incredible, and yet there was no mistaking the sincerity in the other’s words or on his face.  Carlotta’s father did want Carlotta to come to him on his Hill.

But would Carlotta want it?  That was the question.  For himself he sought no higher road to follow than the one where his father and mother had blazed the trail through fair weather and stormy these many years.  But would Carlotta be content to travel so with him?  He did not know.  At any rate he could ask her, try once more to make her see, as her father put it.

He turned to his companion with a sober smile at this point in his reflections.

“Thank you, Mr. Cressy.  I will try again and I know it is going to make a great deal of difference to Carlotta—­and to me—­to have you on my side.  Perhaps she will see it differently this time.  I—­hope so.”

“Lord, boy, so do I!” groaned Mr. Cressy.  “You will come back to Crest House tomorrow with me?”

Phil hesitated, considered, shook his head.

“I’ll come next Saturday.  I can’t get away tomorrow,” he said.

“Why not?  For the Lord’s sake, boy, get it over!”

Phil smiled but shook his head.  He too wanted to get it over.  He could hardly wait to get to Carlotta, would have started that moment if he could have done so.  But there were clear-cut reasons why he could not go tomorrow, obligations that held him fast in Dunbury.

“I can’t go tomorrow because I have promised my boys a hike,” he explained.

Harrison Cressy nearly exploded.

“Heavens, man!  What does a parcel of kids amount to when it comes to getting you a wife?  You can call off your hike, can’t you?”