“How long have you known this about yourself,
Richard?” said Barbara.
“More than four years.”
“And you never told me!”
“My father wished it kept a secret for a time.”
“Did Mr. Wingfold know?”
“Not till yesterday.”
“Why didn’t he tell me yesterday, then?”
“I think he wouldn’t have told you if
he had known all the time.”
“Why?”
“For the same reason that made him leave us
together so suddenly—that you might not
be hampered by knowing it—that we might
understand each other before you knew. I see
it all now! It was just like him!”
“Oh, he is a friend!” cried Barbara.
“He knows what one is, and so knows what one
is thinking!”
A silent embrace followed, and then Barbara said,
“You must come and see my mother!”
“Hadn’t you better tell her first?”
suggested Richard.
“She knows—knows what you didn’t
know—what I’ve been thinking all the
time,” rejoined Barbara, with a rosy look of
confidence into his eyes.
“She can never have been willing you should
marry a tradesman—and one, besides, who—!”
“She knew I would—and that I should
have money, else she might not have been willing.
I don’t say she likes the idea, but she is determined
I shall have the man I love—if he will
have me,” she added shyly.
“Did you tell her you—cared for me?”
He could not say loved yet; he felt an earthy pebble
beside a celestial sapphire!
“Of course I did, when papa wanted me to have
Arthur!—not till then; there was no occasion!
I could not tell what your thoughts were, but my own
were enough for that.”
Mrs. Wylder was taken with Richard the moment she
saw him; and when she heard his story, she was overjoyed,
and would scarcely listen to a word about the uncertainty
of his prospects. That her Bab should marry the
man she loved, and that the alliance should be what
the world counted respectable, was enough for her.
When Richard told his father what he had done, saying
they had fallen in love with each other while yet ignorant
of his parentage, a glow of more than satisfaction
warmed sir Wilton’s consciousness. It was
lovely! Lady Ann was being fooled on all sides!
“Richard has been making good use of his morning!”
he said at dinner. “He has already proposed
to Miss Wylder and been accepted! Richard is a
man of action—a practical fellow!”
Lady Ann did perhaps turn a shade paler, but she smiled.
It was not such a blow as it might have been, for
she too had given up hope of securing her for Arthur.
But it was not pleasant to her that the grandchild
of the blacksmith should have Barbara’s money.
Theodora was puzzled.
THE QUARREL.
