"Master Purvis said he quarrelled with my father. I don't know. I never heard. He never came to Dent--never after I was born, I'm sure." "Oh!" she said. CHAPTER XIII LADY DOROTHY'S STORY Lorry expressed grave doubts of Dick's character for several days, though, as her Ladyship told him, he had no grounds for his suspicions at all. He was merely jealous. That a strange creature should occupy the bear-skin at her feet, and that his mistress should pat the boy's head as often as Lorry's, was an offence to him. In vain her Ladyship introduced Dick to him as one of the family, "Master Richard Byng", as he was called now, since he would not be known as Richard Chester. Lorry would have none of him. But one day he quite suddenly changed his mind. They were walking in the garden, and Lady Dorothy asked the boy to fetch her scarf. Dick darted off up the terrace to the house, and Lorry, with a joyous yelp, dashed after. Here, he thought, was one who would sympathize with his own wild moods. Here was this boy, who could run fast, faster than Lady Dorothy; who could leap and bound, which Lady Dorothy never did. He could scream with laughter, also, in emulation of Lorry's barks, and he did not mind having his face licked, and had no skirts to crush. Henceforth, in the interests of fun and exercise, he cultivated Dick. Together they risked their lives in a thousand monkey-tricks, climbing and fishing and falling. Dick learned to know the fields and woods for miles round in Lorry's company; but they never went quite to the top of the twisted lane and out on the highroad, for there, as Dick told Lorry, they might meet with a Cavalier. He fished and bathed in the streams. He rode on the fat pony, Fairy, by her Ladyship's side. Old Philip taught him to fence, and to shoot with a pistol, and many other manly accomplishments good for health and bad for clothes. On Sundays her Ladyship read the Litany and the prayers for the King, in the dining-room, for no clergyman could be found to come and read the service in her chapel just then. On wet days she read aloud to Dick out of books of romance and travel and poetry, whilst he and Lorry shared the bear-skin or the window-seat. She played the lute also, and she taught Dick to sing with her, whilst Lorry whined outside, not liking their melody. She told him delightful tales, too, about living men and women. Very much the same kind of tales as Giles had told him, Dick thought, though he dare not say so, since she would not love Giles. He grew well-mannered under her care, affectionate and gentle, carried himself like a young gentleman, losing in time the hunted look and shrinking air of the innkeeper's half-starved boy. He was very happy, and in a month or two became very merry. He loved his cousin with all his heart, and hoped for nothing but to live with her all his life, and please her if he could. The old house was a lively place in those early summer months.