Rupert was astonished at the excess of
joy on his friend's part, and was mystified in the extreme when he
wound up:
"You have taken a great load off my mind, Rupert. You have made Pat
Dillon even more eternally indebted to you than he was before."
"What on earth do you mean, Dillon?" Rupert asked. "What is all
this extraordinary delight about? I know I am one of the luckiest
fellows in the world, but why are you so overjoyed because I am in
love?"
"My dear Rupert, now I can tell you all about it. I told you, you
know, that in the two winters you were away I went, at the
invitation of Mynheer van Duyk, to Dort; in order that he might
hear whether there was any news of you, and what I thought of your
chance of being alive, and all that; didn't I?"
"Yes, you told me all that, Dillon; but what on earth has that got
to do with it?"
"Well, my boy, I stopped each time something like a month at Dort,
and, as a matter of course, I fell over head and ears in love with
Maria van Duyk. I never said a word, though I thought she liked me
well enough; but she was for ever talking about you and praising
you, and her father spoke of you as his son; and I made sure it was
all a settled thing between you, and thought what a sly dog you
were never to have breathed a word to me of your good fortune. If
you had never come back I should have tried my luck with her; but
when you turned up again, glad as I was to see you, Rupert, I made
sure that there was an end of any little corner of hope I had had.
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