Dora met Ronald in the park, by the brook-side, and in the green meadows where the white hawthorn grew.

They talked of but one thing, their love.

Ronald never tired of watching Dora's fair face and pretty ways; she never wearied of telling him over and over again, in a hundred different ways, how noble and kind he was, and how dearly she loved him.
Lord Earle wrote to say that he should be home on the Thursday evening, and that they were bringing back a party of guests with them.
"There will be no time to tell my father just at present," said Ronald; "so, Dora, we must keep our secret.

It will not do to tell your father before I tell mine." They arranged to keep the secret until Lord Earle should be alone again.

They were to meet twice every day--in the early morning, while the dew lay on the grass, and in the evening, when the Hall would be full of bustle and gayety.
Ronald felt guilty--he hardly knew how or why--when his father commiserated him for the two lonely weeks he had spent.