"Do you often come to Overhaddon?" Her eager eyes shone like red coals,
and looking at John, she awaited smilingly his response.

"Seldom," answered John; "not often. I mean every day--that is, if I may
come."

"Any one may come to the village whenever he wishes to do so," responded
Dorothy, laughing too plainly at Sir John's confusion. "Is it seldom, or
not often, or every day that you come?" In her overconfidence she was
chaffing him. He caught the tone, and looked quickly into the girl's eyes.
Her gaze could not stand against John's for a moment, and the long lashes
drooped to shade her eyes from the fierce light of his.

"I said I would come to Overhaddon every day," he returned; "and although
I must have appeared very foolish in my confusion, you cannot
misunderstand the full meaning of my words."

In John's boldness and in the ring of his voice Dorothy felt the touch of
her master, against whom she well knew all the poor force she could muster
would be utterly helpless. She was frightened, and said:--

"I--I must go. Good-by."

When she rode away from him she thought: "I believed because of his
confusion that I was the stronger. I could not stand against him for a
moment. Holy Virgin! what have I done, and to what am I coming?"

You may now understand the magnitude of the task which Sir George had set
for me when he bade me marry his daughter and kill the Rutlands. I might