‘One of the grand gentlemen over from Rooklands come to court Miss Rosa,’ she thought in the innocence of her heart, as she turned off the road to take a short cut across the country to Mavis Farm. Meanwhile the couple she alluded to were making their way slowly towards Corston; she, reining in her horse to the pace of a tortoise, whilst he walked by the side with his hand upon the crutch of her saddle. ‘Could you doubt for a moment whether I should come?’ said Frederick Darley in answer to Rosa’s question. ‘Wouldn’t I go twenty—fifty miles, for the pleasure of a dance with you?’ ‘You’re such an awful flatterer,’ she replied, bridling under the compliment; ‘but don’t make too sure of a dance with me, for papa and my brothers will be there, and they are so horribly particular about me.’ ‘And not particularly fond of me—I know it, Miss Murray—but I care nothing at all about it so long as—as—’ ‘As what?’ ‘_As you are._’ ‘Oh, Mr Darley! how can you talk such nonsense?’ ‘It’s not nonsense! it’s sober sense—come, Rosa, tell me the truth. Are you playing with me, or not?’ ‘What do you mean by “playing”?’ ‘You know. Are you in earnest or in jest? In fact—do you love me better than you love your father and your brothers?’ ‘Mr Darley! You know I do!’ ‘Prove it then, by meeting me to-night.’ ‘Meeting you? Are you not coming to the harvest-home?’ ‘I may look in, but I shall not remain long; I shall only use it as an excuse to come over to Corston. Mr Murray is suspicious of me—I can see that—and your brothers dislike me. I don’t care to sit at the table of men who are not my friends, Rosa. But if you will take an opportunity to slip out of the barn and join me in the apple copse, I will wait there for you at ten o’clock.’ ‘Oh! Frederick—if papa should catch me!’ ‘I will take care of that! Only say you’ll come.’ ‘I should like to come—it will be so lovely and romantic. Just like a scene in a novel. But I am afraid it is very wrong.’ ‘What is there wrong in a moonlight stroll? “The summer nights were made for love,” Rosa, and we shall have a glorious moon by nine o’clock to-night. You won’t disappoint me, will you?’ ‘No, indeed I won’t; but if anything should be discovered you will promise me—’ ‘What? I will promise you anything in the world.’ ‘Only that you will shield me from papa’s anger—that you will say it was all your fault. For papa is dreadful when he gets in a temper.’ ‘If you should be discovered—which is not at all likely—I promise you that, rather than give you back into papa’s clutches, I will carry you straight off to Rooklands and marry you with a special licence. Will that satisfy you? Would you consent to be my wife, Rosa?’ ‘Yes!’ she replied, and earnestly, for she had been captivated by the manner and appearance of Frederick Darley for some weeks past, and this was not the first meeting by many that they had held without the knowledge of her father.