‘She is pretty well, I think’

’Colonel Askerton has seen more of her than I have since her father’s death, and he says that she does not bear it well.  He thinks that she is ill.’

‘I do not think her ill.  Of course she is not in good spirits.’

’No; exactly.  How should she be?  But he thinks she seems so worn.  I hope you will excuse me, Mr Belton, but I love her so well that I cannot bear to be quite in the dark as to her future.  Is anything settled yet?’

‘She is going to Aylmer Castle.’

‘To Aylmer Castle!  Is she indeed?  At once?’

‘Very soon.  Lady Aylmer has asked her.’

‘Lady Aylmer!  Then I suppose’

‘You suppose what?’ Will Belton asked.

’I did not think she would have gone to Aylmer Castle though I dare say it is the best thing she could do She seemed to me to dislike the Aylmers that is, Lady Aylmer so much!  But I suppose she is right?’

‘She is right to go if she likes it.’

’She is circumstanced so cruelly!  Is she not?  Where else could she go?  I do so feel for her.  I believe I need hardly tell you, Mr Belton, that, she would be as welcome here as flowers in May but that I do not dare to ask her to come to us.’  She said this in a low voice, turning her eyes away from him, looking first upon the ground, and then again up at the window but still not daring to meet his eye.

‘I don’t exactly know about that,’ said Belton awkwardly.

‘You know, I hope, that I love her dearly.’

‘Everybody does that,’ said Will.

‘You do, Mr Belton.’

‘Yes I do; just as though she were my sister.’

‘And as your sister would you let her come here to us?’ He sat silent for awhile, thinking, and she waited patiently for his answer.  Bat she spoke again before he answered her.  ’I am well aware that you know all my history, Mr Belton.’

’I shouldn’t tell it her, if you mean that, though she were my sister.  If she were my wife I should tell her.’

‘And why your wife?’

‘Because then I should be sure it would do no harm.’

’Then I find that you can be generous, Mr Belton.  But she knows it all as well as you do.’

‘I did not tell her.’

’Nor did I but I should have done so had not Captain Aylmer been before me.  And now tell me whether I could ask her to come here.’

‘It would be useless, as she is going to Aylmer Castle’.

‘But she is going there simply to find a home having no other.’

’That is not so, Mrs Askerton.  She has a home as perfectly her own as any woman in the land.  Belton Castle is hers, to do what she may please with it.  She can live here if she likes it, and nobody can say a word to her.  She need not go to Aylmer Castle to look for a home.’

‘You mean you would lend her the house?’

‘It is hers.’

‘I do not understand you, Mr Belton.’