“Oh, yes,” cried Dolly. She was very incautious. “I thought you were such a----” She did not say queer little man, but felt as if she had said it, so near was it to her lips; and blushed, which pleased Gus greatly, and made him imagine a much more flattering conclusion. “You asked me a great deal about poor Paul,” she said, “and then we met them coming home; and Sir William, oh! how ill he looked--as if he would die!” “You remember that day?” said Gus, much delighted, “and so do I. You told me a great deal about my family. It was strange to talk of my family as if I had been a stranger, and to hear so much about them.” “I thought you were a stranger, Sir Augustus.” “Yes, and you wished I had been one when you found out who I really was. Oh, I don’t blame you, Miss Dolly--it was very natural; but I hope now, my dear,” he said, with a tone that was quite fatherly, though he did not intend it to be so, “that you are not so sorry, but rather glad on the whole to know Gus Markham, who is not so bad as you thought.” Dolly was surprised to be called “my dear;” but at his age was it not quite natural? “Oh,” she said, faltering, “I never thought you were bad, Sir Augustus; you have always been very kind, I know.” But she could not say she was glad of his existence, which had done so much harm to--other people; even though in her heart she had a liking for Sir Gus, the queerest little man that ever was! “I have tried to be,” he said; “and I think they all feel I have done my best to show myself a real friend; but there comes a time when one wants something more than a friend, and, Dolly, I think that time has come now.” Well! it was a little odd, but she did not at all mind being called Dolly by Sir Gus. She looked at him with a little surprise, doubtful what he could mean. They were by this time quite near the village and the Rectory gate. “I think,” he said, “that if I don’t get married, my dear, I shall never be able to stand another winter at Markham. It nearly killed me last year.” “Married!” she cried, her voice going off in a high quaver of surprise and consternation. If her father had intimated a similar intention she could scarcely have been more astonished. This is what everybody had consoled themselves by thinking such a man was never likely to do.