'Five years ago I wrote to him,' said Hubert, speaking very slowly, 'asking
him to lend me fifty pounds, and he refused. Since then I have not heard
from him.' At the end of a long silence, the girl said--
'So long as you know that I am no longer angry with him for having
disinherited me, I do not mind telling you the reason. Two months before he
died he asked me to marry him, and I refused.'
They walked several yards without speaking.
'Do you not think I was right? I was only eighteen, and he was over sixty.'
'It seems to me quite shocking that he could have even contemplated such a
thing.'
'But look at these poor ducks; they have followed us all the way, and I
have forgotten to feed them!' Taking out all the bread that remained in the
basket, Emily threw it to the ducks that had collected where the dammed-up
stream that filled the lake trickled over a wooden sluice. There was a
plank by which to cross the deep cutting. Hubert and Emily paused, and
stood gazing at the large beech wood that swept over some rising ground.
Don had not been seen for some time, and they both shouted to him.
Presently a black mass was seen bounding through the flowers, and the
panting animal once more ensconced himself by his mistress's side.
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