We left John Eames in the custody of Lady Julia, who had overtaken him in the act of erasing Lily’s name from the railing which ran across the brook.  He had been premeditating an escape home to his mother’s house in Guestwick, and thence hack to London, without making any further appearance at the Manor House.  But as soon as he heard Lady Julia’s step, and saw her figure close upon him, he knew that his retreat was cut off from him.  So he allowed himself to be led away quietly up to the house.  With Lady Julia herself he openly discussed the whole matter,—­telling her that his hopes were over, his happiness gone, and his heart half-broken.  Though he would perhaps have cared but little for her congratulations in success, he could make himself more amenable to consolation and sympathy from her than from any other inmate in the earl’s house.  “I don’t know what I shall say to your brother,” he whispered to her, as they approached the side door at which she intended to enter.

“Will you let me break it to him?  After that he will say a few words to you of course, but you need not be afraid of him.”

“And Mr Dale?” said Johnny.  “Everybody has heard about it.  Everybody will know what a fool I have made myself.”  She suggested that the earl should speak to the squire, assured him that nobody would think him at all foolish, and then left him to make his way up to his own bedroom.  When there he found a letter from Cradell, which had been delivered in his absence; but the contents of that letter may best be deferred to the next chapter.  They were not of a nature to give him comfort or to add to his sorrow.

About an hour before dinner there was a knock at his door, and the earl himself, when summoned, made his appearance in the room.  He was dressed in his usual farming attire, having been caught by Lady Julia on his first approach to the house, and had come away direct to his young friend, after having been duly trained in what he ought to say by his kind-hearted sister.  I am not, however, prepared to declare that he strictly followed his sister’s teaching in all that he said upon the occasion.

“Well, my boy,” he began, “so the young lady has been perverse.”

“Yes, my lord.  That is, I don’t know about being perverse.  It is all over.”

“That’s as may be, Johnny.  As far as I know, not half of them accept their lovers the first time of asking.”

“I shall not ask her again.”

“Oh, yes, you will.  You don’t mean to say you are angry with her for refusing you.”

“Not in the least.  I have no right to be angry.  I am only angry with myself for being such a fool, Lord De Guest.  I wish I had been dead before I came down here on this errand.  Now I think of it, I know there are so many things which ought to have made me sure how it would be.”