yes;
'thou art not altogether the clumsy yokel, and the clod, I took thee
for.'

'Oh, no, grandfather; oh, dear grandfather,' cried Lorna, with such zeal
and flashing, that her hands went forward; 'nobody knows what John Ridd
is, because he is so modest. I mean, nobody except me, dear.' And here
she turned to me again, and rose upon tiptoe, and kissed me.

'I have seen a little o' the world,' said the old man, while I was half
ashamed, although so proud of Lorna; 'but this is beyond all I have
seen, and nearly all I have heard of. It is more fit for southern
climates than for the fogs of Exmoor.'

'It is fit for all the world, your worship; with your honour's good
leave, and will,' I answered in humility, being still ashamed of it;
'when it happens so to people, there is nothing that can stop it, sir.'

Now Sir Ensor Doone was leaning back upon his brown chair-rail, which
was built like a triangle, as in old farmhouses (from one of which it
had come, no doubt, free from expense or gratitude); and as I spoke he
coughed a little; and he sighed a good deal more; and perhaps his dying
heart desired to open time again, with such a lift of warmth and hope as
he descried in our eyes, and arms. I could not understand him then; any
more than a baby playing with his grandfather's spectacles; nevertheless
I wondered whether, at his time of life, or rather on the brink of
death, he was thinking of his youth and pride.

'Fools you are; be fools for ever,' said Sir Ensor Doone, at last; while
we feared to break his thoughts, but let each other know our own, with
little ways of pressure; 'it is the best thing I can wish you; boy and
girl, be boy and girl, until you have grandchildren.'

Partly in bitterness he spoke, and partly in pure weariness, and then
he turned so as not to see us; and his white hair fell, like a shroud,
around him.

CHAPTER XLI

COLD COMFORT

All things being full of flaw, all things being full of holes, the
strength of all things is in shortness. If Sir Ensor Doone had dwelled
for half an hour upon himself, and an hour perhaps upon Lorna and me,
we must both have wearied of him, and required change of air. But now
I longed to see and know a great deal more about him, and hoped that he
might not go to Heaven for at least a week or more. However, he was too
good for this world (as we say of all people who leave it); and I verily
believe his heart was not a bad one, after all.

Evil he had done, no