We went and sat down, and my heart slowly resumed its function.

’Let me see, Winnie, what were we talking about?  About rubies and diamonds, I think, were we not?  You said that when your father bade you come out for a walk to-night, he had just been talking about rubies and diamonds.  What was he saying about them, Winnie?  But come and lay your head here while you tell me; lay it on my breast, Winnie, as you used to do in Graylingham Wood, and on these same sands.’

Evidently the earnestness of my manner and the suppressed passion in my voice drove out of her mind all her wise saws about the perils of wealth and all her wise determinations about the postponed betrothal, for she came and sat by my side and laid her head upon my breast.

‘Yes. like that,’ I said; ’and now tell me what your father was saying about precious stones; for I, too, take an interest in jewels, and have a great knowledge of them.’

‘My father,’ said Winifred, ’is going to have some diamonds and rubies given to him to-night by a friend of his, a sailor, who has come from India, and I am to go to London to-morrow to sell some of them; for you know, dear, we are very poor.  That is why I am determined to go back to Shire-Carnarvon and see if I can get a situation as governess.  Miss Dalrymple’s recommendation will be of great aid.  Poverty afflicts father more than it afflicts most people, and the rubies and diamonds and things will be of no use to us, you know.’

I could make her no answer.

‘It seems a very strange kind of present from my father’s friend,’ she continued, meditatively; ’but it is a very kind one for all that.  But, Henry, you surely are still very unwell; your heart is thumping underneath my ear like a fire-engine.’

‘They are all love-thumps for Winifred,’ I said, with pretended jocosity; ‘they are all love-thumps for my Winnie.’

‘But of course,’ said she, ’this is quite a secret about the precious stones.  My father enjoined me to tell no one, because the temptation to people is so great, and the cottage might be robbed, or I might be waylaid going to London.  But of course I may tell you; he never thought of you.’

’No, Winnie, he never thought of me.  You are very fond of him; very fond of your father, are you not?’

‘Oh yes,’ said she, ’I love him more than all the world—­next to you.’

‘Then he is kind to you, Winnie?’ ’Ye—­yes, as kind as he can be—­considering—­’

‘Considering what, Winnie?’

‘Considering that he’s often—­unwell, you know.’

‘Winnie.’  I said, as I gazed in the innocent eyes, ’whom are you considered to be the most like, your father or your mother?’

’I never knew my mother, but I am said to be partly like her.  Why do you ask?’

‘Only an idle question.  You love me, Winnie?’

‘What a question!’

’And you will do what I ask you to do, if I ask you very earnestly, Winnie?’