I suppose this will not last much
longer.'
'Probably not half an hour. I don't want to see that fellow either
convicted or acquitted.'
Then Dolores found herself steered out of the passages and from among
the people waiting or gazing, into the clearer space in the street, her
father holding her hand as if she had been a little child. Neither of
them spoke till they had reached the sitting-room, and there, the first
thing he did when the door was shut, was to sit down, take her between
his knees, put an arm round her, and kiss her, saying again, 'My poor
child!'
'You never got my letter!' she said, leaning against him, feeling the
peace and rest his embrace gave.
'No; but I have heard all. I should have warned you, Dolly; but I
never imagined that he could get at you there; and I was unwilling to
accuse one for whom your mother had a certain affection.'
'That was why I helped him,' whispered Dolores.
'I knew it,' he said kindly. 'But how did he find you out, and how had
he the impertinence to write to you at your Aunt Lily's--'
'I wrote to him first,' she said, hanging down her head.
'How was that? You surely had not been in the habit of doing so whilst
I was at home.'
'No; but he came and spoke to me at Exeter, the day you went away.
Uncle William was not there, he had gone into the town. And he--Mr.
Flinders, said he was going down to see you, and was very much
disappointed to hear that you were gone.'
'Did he ask you to write to him?'
'I don't think he did.
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