"No, you can't do that."
However, as it turned out, this Quixotic act of consideration was
allowed to remain a dark secret between these two. With the brisk
walking and the warm, sunlit air around them, their clothes were already
drying; and when old Robert met them, in the dusky chasm at the foot of
the Bad Step, he was far too much engaged with the fish to notice their
limp and damp garments; while again, as they resumed their march, he,
carrying the fish, lagged in the rear, and thus they escaped his keen
eyes. Indeed, by the time they reached the Lodge, and as Miss Honnor was
about to enter, Lionel said to her that he felt quite warm and
comfortable, and proposed to go for a further walk down the strath
before dinner; but she peremptorily forbade this and ordered him off to
his own room to get a change of clothes.
It is not to be imagined that an incident of this kind could do aught
but sink deep into the mind of any young man, and especially into the
mind of a young man who had particular reasons for wanting to know how
this young lady was affected towards him. She herself had made light of
the matter; it had been merely a sudden impulse, born of her own
abundant good-nature; probably she would have done as much for Percy
Lestrange.
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