n, English to the very bones, who bore with a royal
dignity an intolerable grief, and yet by the magnificence of her spirit
turned into something wholly beautiful.

'You must forgive me for forcing myself upon you to-day,' he said
slowly. 'But my time is very short, and I wanted to speak to you at
once.'

'It is very good of you to come.' She was embarrassed, and did not know
what exactly to say. 'I am always very glad to see you.'

He looked at her steadily, as though he were turning over in his mind
her commonplace words. She smiled.

'I wanted to thank you for your great kindness to me during these two or
three weeks. You've been very good to me, and you've helped me to bear
all that--I've had to bear.'

'I would do far more for you than that,' he answered. Suddenly it
flashed through her mind why he had come. Her heart gave a great beat
against her chest. The thought had never entered her head. She sat down
and waited for him to speak. He did not move. There was a singular
immobility about him when something absorbed his mind.

'I wrote and asked if I might see you alone, because I had something
that I wanted to say to you. I've wanted to say it ever since we were at
Court Leys together, but I was going away--heaven only knows when I
shall come back, and perhaps something may happen to me--and I thought
it was unfair to you to speak.'

He paused. His eyes were fixed upon hers. She waited for him to go on.

'I wanted to ask you if you would marry me.'

She drew a long breath. Her face kept its expression of intense gravity.

'It's very kind and chivalrous of you to suggest it. You mustn't think
me ungrateful if I tell you I can't.'

'Why not?' he asked quietly.

'I must look after my father. If it is any use I shall go and live near
the prison.'

'There is no reason why you should not do that if you married me.'

She shook her head.

'No, I must be free. As soon as my father is released I must be ready to
live with him. And I can't take an honest man's name. It looks as if I
were running away from my own and taking shelter elsewhere.'

She hesitated for a while, since it made her very shy to say what she
had in mind. When she spoke it was in a low and trembling voice.

'You don't know how proud I was of my name and my family. For centuries
they've been honest, decent people, and I felt that we'd had a part in
the making of England. And now I feel utterly ashamed. Dick Lomas
laughed at me because