“ Yes; I saw a great deal of her for a whole year before her father’s death. We met often in that thicket—the Red Deeps—near Dorlcote Mill. I love her dearly; I shall never love any other woman. I have thought of her ever since she was a little girl.”
“ Go on, sir! And you have corresponded with her all this while?”
“ No. I never told her I loved her till just before we parted, and she promised her brother not to see me again or to correspond with me. I am not sure that she loves me or would consent to marry me. But if she would consent,—if she did love me well enough,—I should marry her.”
“ And this is the return you make me for all the indulgences I’ve heaped on you?” said Wakem, getting white, and beginning to tremble under an enraged sense of impotence before Philip’s cal
