‘I couldn’t, Aunt Stanbury.’

‘You mean you wouldn’t.  I wonder what it is you do expect.’

‘I don’t expect anything, Aunt Stanbury.’

’No; and I don’t expect anything.  What an old fool I am ever to look for any comfort.  Why should I think that anybody would care for me?’

‘Indeed, I do care for you.’

’In what sort of way do you show it?  You’re just like your brother Hugh.  I’ve disgraced myself to that man promising what I could not perform.  I declare it makes me sick when I think of it.  Why did you not tell me at once?’ Dorothy said nothing further, but sat with the cap on her lap.  She did not dare to resume her needle, and she did not like to put the cap aside, as by doing so it would seem as though she had accepted her aunt’s prohibition against her work.  For half an hour she sat thus, during which time Miss Stanbury dropped asleep.  She woke with a start, and began to scold again.  ’What’s the good of sitting there all the day, with your hands before you, doing nothing?’

But Dorothy had been very busy.  She had been making up her mind, and had determined to communicate her resolution to her aunt.  ‘Dear aunt,’ she said, ‘I’ve been thinking of something.’

‘It’s too late now,’ said Miss Stanbury.

‘I see I’ve made you very unhappy.’

‘Of course you have.’

’And you think that I’m ungrateful.  I’m not ungrateful, and I don’t think that Hugh is.’

‘Never mind Hugh.’

’Only because it seems so hard that you should take so much trouble about us, and that then there should be so much vexation.’

‘I find it very hard.’

‘So I think that I’d better go back to Nuncombe.’

‘That’s what you call gratitude.’

’I don’t like to stay here and make you unhappy.  I can’t think that I ought to have done what you asked me, because I did not feel at all in that way about Mr Gibson.  But as I have only disappointed you, it will be better that I should go home.  I have been very happy here very.’

‘Bother!’ exclaimed Miss Stanbury.

’I have, and I do love you, though you won’t believe it.  But I am sure I oughtn’t to remain to make you unhappy.  I shall never forget all that you have done for me; and though you call me ungrateful, I am not.  But I know that I ought not to stay, as I cannot do what you wish.  So, if you please, I will go back to Nuncombe.’

‘You’ll not do anything of the kind,’ said Miss Stanbury.

‘But it will be better.’

‘Yes, of course; no doubt.  I suppose you’re tired of us all.’

‘It is not that I’m tired, Aunt Stanbury.  It isn’t that at all.’  Dorothy had now become red up to the roots of her hair, and her eyes were full of tears.  ’But I cannot stay where people think that I am ungrateful.  If you please, Aunt Stanbury, I will go.’  Then, of course, there was a compromise.  Dorothy did at last consent to remain in the Close, but only on condition that she should be forgiven for her sin in reference to Mr Gibson, and be permitted to go on with her aunt’s cap.