‘You ought to have trusted me better, papa,’ Milly said tenderly; and I knew what perfect self-abnegation there was in the happy smile with which she gave him her hand.

‘And you are not angry with me, my darling?’ he asked.

’Angry with you, papa? as if I had any right to be angry with you!  Only try to love me a little, as you used to do, and I shall be quite happy.’

‘I shall never love you less, my dear.’

The journey was not a long one; and the country through which we passed was very fair to look upon in the bright June afternoon.  The landscape changed when we were within about thirty miles of our destination:  the fertile farmlands and waving fields of green corn gave place to an open moor, and I felt from far off the fresh breath of the ocean.  This broad undulating moorland was new to me, and I thought there was a wild kind of beauty in its loneliness.  As for Milly, she looked out at the moor with rapture, and strained her eyes to catch the first glimpse of the hills about Thornleigh—­those hills of which she had talked to me so often in her little room at school.

The station we had to stop at was ten miles from Mr. Darrell’s house, and a barouche-and-pair was waiting for us in the sunny road outside.  We drove along a road that crossed the moor, until we came to a little village of scattered houses, with a fine old church—­at one end of which an ancient sacristy seemed mouldering slowly to decay.  We drove past the gates of two or three rather important houses, lying half-hidden in their gardens, and then turned sharply off into a road that went up a hill, nearly at the top of which we came to a pair of noble old carved iron gates, surmounted with a coat-of-arms, and supported on each side by massive stone pillars, about which the ivy twined lovingly.

An old man came out of a pretty rustic-looking lodge and opened theses gates, and we drove through an avenue of some extent, which led straight to the front of the house, the aspect of which delighted me.  It was very old and massively built, and had quite a baronial look, I thought.  There was a wide stone terrace with ponderous moss-grown stone balustrades round three sides of it, and at each angle a broad flight of steps leading down to a second terrace, with sloping green banks that melted into the turf of the lawn.  The house stood on the summit of a hill, and from one side commanded a noble view of the sea.

A lady came out of the curious old stone porch as the carriage drove up, and stood at the top of the terrace steps waiting for us.  I guessed immediately that this must be Mrs. Darrell.

Milly hung back a little shyly, as her father led her up the steps with her hand through his arm.  She was very pale, and I could see that she was trembling.  Mrs. Darrell came forward to her quickly, and kissed her.

‘My darling Emily,’ she cried, ’I am so delighted to see you at last.—­O William, you did not deceive me when you promised me a beautiful daughter.’