"Then I shall think higher of his opinion than ever," replied Joe; "and you may drop in his ear that I rate him high too, Thomas. All well within reason, of course--he ain't indispensable--nobody is, great or small. Still, I'm suited and I'm glad he is." Thomas made no reply, but rose and went out. Then Joe addressed his kinsman. "Have you got the date out of her?" Johnny shook his head. "She allows it must be in the Spring, but holds off naming the time any nearer." "Not like her. We must all have a go at her. But if your father can't do it, who can?" "If I can't, who can? That's the question, I should think." They argued Dinah's delay and presently she returned. "Susan did ought to go to bed," she said. "See me down the hill, Johnny; I must be off, else they'll wonder what's become of me." CHAPTER VII AT GREEN HAYES To Dinah Waycott there came an experience familiar enough, yet fraught with shock and grief to any man and woman of good will who is forced to suffer it. By gradual stages the truth had overtaken her, and now she knew that what in all honesty she believed was love--the emotion that had made her accept John Bamsey and promise to marry him--was nothing more than such affection and regard as a sister might feel for a favourite brother. Their relations had in fact been upon that basis all their lives. She remembered Johnny as long as she remembered anything, for she had been but two years old when he was born, and they had grown up together. And now, being possessed of a mind that faced life pretty fearlessly, and blessed with clear reasoning powers, Orphan Dinah knew the truth. First she considered how such an unhappy thing could have happened. She was young and without experience. She had never heard of a similar case. And what most puzzled her was why the light had been thrown at all, and what had happened to convince her that she had erred. When she accepted her lover, most fully and firmly she believed that her heart prompted. It did not beat quicker at his proposition, and for a time she could not feel sure; but before she accepted him she did feel sure and emphatically believed it was love that inspired her promise. But now she knew that it was not love; and yet she could not tell why she knew it.