It's so quiet, and we are alone."
"Yes, it's very quiet," said Catherine vaguely, looking about her.
"Won't you come back to the carriage?"
"In a moment. Do you mean that in all this time you have not yielded
an inch?"
"I would if I could, father; but I can't."
The Doctor looked round him too. "Should you like to be left in such
a place as this, to starve?"
"What do you mean?" cried the girl.
"That will be your fate--that's how he will leave you."
He would not touch her, but he had touched Morris. The warmth came
back to her heart. "That is not true, father," she broke out, "and
you ought not to say it! It is not right, and it's not true!"
He shook his head slowly. "No, it's not right, because you won't
believe it. But it IS true. Come back to the carriage."
He turned away, and she followed him; he went faster, and was
presently much in advance. But from time to time he stopped, without
turning round, to let her keep up with him, and she made her way
forward with difficulty, her heart beating with the excitement of
having for the first time spoken to him in violence. By this time it
had grown almost dark, and she ended by losing sight of him. But she
kept her course, and after a little, the valley making a sudden turn,
she gained the road, where the carriage stood waiting. In it sat her
father, rigid and silent; in silence, too, she took her place beside
him.
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