The main difficulty which Felix had foreseen in this interview, was that of convincing Rona that they must not make a clean breast of their circumstances, without giving her the true reason for his silence. But on this point he found her unexpectedly amenable. He began, with much diffidence. "You know, Rona, you asked me in your letter, whether you might not tell Miss Rawson everything?" "Yes," said the girl impulsively, "but I am sorry for that. As soon as I had written, I was sorry. Because, of course, I see that we can't do that." He was puzzled. "You do see that we can't?" "Certainly we can't. Because, if we did, they would have to know that you had been in--prison--and that they shall never know through me." He gazed at her with ever-increasing admiration. "You see that?" "Yes. I am growing up, you see. I think and hope I grow more sensible every day. I am learning, learning, every minute. Oh, David, you can't think how ignorant and foolish I am, or was. Inside those convent walls there was no world, only the circle of our everyday life, and the question of lessons and punishments, and being good, and being naughty, and fasts and festivals and penances and so on. But I believe that really I have plenty of brains, and I have a strong will too----" --"That you have, or you never would have escaped, the determined way you did----" --"And I know that, if these people, who are as kind as the people in a fairy-tale, do give me a chance to learn more, I shall take full advantage of it. Oh, David, by the time you come back, I shall be so changed! Twice as sensible and better instructed, and able to help you--to earn my own living, or help you earn yours." "You are happy here?" he wistfully asked. "Happy? I should think so. It is such a nice place, and they are so good. I don't mean only kind to me, but good to everyone. They do their duty all day long, and the priest and the doctor seem to come to them for everything they want." "And you like the Squire?" "Oh, very much. Not as much as I like Miss Rawson, of course. Miss Rawson is more--more--I don't think I can describe it. She has more mischief in her, somehow. He is fussy over little unimportant things, and he is rather prosy sometimes. But he is very kind, and he takes such an interest in me." He sat gazing upon her as she spoke out her innocent thought. The idea of her being there, in his own home, until he came to summon her forth into the world with him, was so surpassingly sweet that it was with the utmost difficulty that he refrained from telling her how he had first seen the light within the walls that now sheltered her. "It--it would disappoint you very much if they should decide not to keep you?" She looked earnestly at him. "What would that mean? Would it mean that you would take me away at once?"