"Yes, Tom, yes," she cried passionately. "There’s a better reason. Oh, Tom, I’m in love with you, and I always have been, though I’ve behaved like a little Beast. And I couldn’t never be in love with Lord Ruddington if he was all made of gold. Take me away!" "Why should I?" asked the radiant lover a minute afterwards, making a descent into the practical. "If it’s a bargain, what’s the good of running away from the Missis? We sha’n’t find such a soft job or such a good old girl again in a hurry. If we run away, she won’t have us back." "But he’s coming to-morrow," interrupted Susan in a panic. "A jolly good thing too!" declared Gibson. "If you’re going to give him the push, the sooner the better. Let him come. Give him the straight tip. In fact, I’m not sure," added Gibson meditatively, "that he oughtn’t to be made to part with a hundred pound for breach of promise. Cheer up, and let ’em all come!" "No, no!" cried Susan, terror-stricken. "If I see him, he’ll turn me round his little finger. I shall be too scared to say a word. I shall be just like a stuck pig. Besides, he’ll ask me about the letters." "Letters?" echoed Gibson. "Yes, the letters. Oh, Tom, I’ve been so wicked. When his first letter came to Traxelby, I copied the answer out of an old book." "You can go now ... if you want to!" I murmured to Ruddington, behind our bush. But he only plucked at my hand, and held it as in a vice, while he listened with all his ears. Susan talked on. "That old book, with the covers off. But, when I showed it to Miss Langley, she said it didn’t sound right, and she wrote out a lovely letter for me to copy, and----" "Go ahead!" said Gibson. "And--oh, Tom, I told a lie! I pretended I didn’t know I was to copy it out. I thought his Lordship would make fun of my writing and give me up. So I posted it in ... in Miss Langley’s writing." "Lord love us!" put in Gibson, in tones of awe. "Yes. And Miss Langley was dreadfully angry. But when we’d begun, we had to go on I promised faithful that I would practise my writing; but I didn’t play fair." "So the Missis has been helping him?" demanded Gibson with a blaze of wrath. "The Missis wanted you to have him?" "No, no! The Missis asked me..." "Asked what?" "She asked ... oh, Tom, she asked if I cared for you! And I told a lie, and I said I didn’t. Then she helped me. But she put it in all the letters that he must wait, and that he mustn’t come after me, and that he mustn’t persuade me, and that I wouldn’t marry him unless I could be in love with him. No, no, Tom. The Missis has been splendid!" "What’s he come for, then, if you told him he mustn’t?" Gibson asked, less angrily. "I don’t know. But Tom, Tom, don’t wait here or we shall be caught. Say Yes or No. Will you take me away?" Gibson’s answer came boldly; "Yes!" Later on, he added: "We will go back to England and be married at once." "I have thirty pounds," said practical Susan. "It’s in Derlingham Post-office."