"Yes, out of your own station. If I had loved anyone else but you----" "No, no! Don't say that," she interrupted. "God knows best. We are strengthened and made better by the painful discipline of life." He took her outstretched hand and held it for a moment, then raised it to his lips. So they parted. He could not feel angry or resentful. She was so sweet, so gentle, so womanly, that she compelled his reverence. It was better to have loved her and lost, than to have won any other woman on earth. On the following afternoon, on reaching home, Ruth met him at the door with a puzzled expression in her eyes. "Who do you think is in the parlour?" she questioned, with a touch of excitement in her voice. "William Menire," he ventured, with a laugh. "Then you are mistaken. William has gone to St. Hilary. But what do you say to the squire?" "Sir John Hamblyn?" She nodded. "He's been waiting the best part of an hour." For a moment he hesitated, then he strode past her into the house. Sir John rose and bowed stiffly. Ralph closed the door behind him and waited for the squire to speak. "I went down to the boat, hoping to catch you before you left Boulogne," Sir John began. "I returned by way of Calais," was the quick reply. "Ah, that explains. I was curious to have a little further talk with you. What you said about the lode excited me a great deal." "I have little doubt of it." "I own I have no claim upon you," Sir John went on, without heeding the interruption. "Still, keeping the knowledge to yourself can do you no good." "That is quite true." "While to me it would be everything." "It might be a bad thing. In the past, excuse me for saying it, you have used your wealth and your influence neither wisely nor well. In fact, you have prostituted both to selfish and unworthy ends." "I have been foolish, I own, and I have had to pay dearly for it. You think I pressed your father hard, but I was hard pressed myself. If I hadn't allowed myself to drift into the hands of those villainous Jews I should have been a better man." "But are you not in their hands still?" "Well, yes, up to a certain point I am. At present they are practically running the estates." "And when will you be free?" "Well, I hardly know. You see they keep piling up interest in such a way that it is difficult to discover where I am. But a rich lode would enable me to clear off everything." "I am not sure of that. If during your lifetime they have got a hold on the estates, how do you know they would not appropriate the lode with the rest?" Sir John looked blank, and for several moments was silent. "Do you know," he said at length, "that I have already paid three times more in interest than the total amount I borrowed?" "I can quite believe that," was the answer. "Would you mind telling me the amount you did borrow?" Sir John named the sum. Ralph regarded him in silence for several moments.