"Are you, too, blind?
Could you not see what I was doing ?" "Yes," I responded.
"Then why do you ask ?" As I went back to Madge I saw John ride out of the village by the south road.

I afterward learned that he rode gloomily back to Rutland Castle cursing himself for a fool.

His duty to his father, which with him was a strong motive, his family pride, his self love, his sense of caution, all told him that he was walking open-eyed into trouble.

He had tried to remain away from the vicinity of Haddon Hall, but, despite his self-respect and self-restraint, he had made several visits to Rowsley and to Overhaddon, and at one time had ridden to Bakewell, passing Haddon Hall on his way thither.

He had as much business in the moon as at Overhaddon, yet he told Dorothy he would be at the village every day, and she, it seemed, was only too willing to give him opportunities to transact his momentous affairs.
As the floating cloud to the fathomless blue, as the seed to the earth, as the iron to the lodestone, so was Dorothy unto John.
Thus you see our beautiful pitcher went to the well and was broken..