Dickon answered that he was an Englishman who had been travelling in France with his wife and had no interest in French politics and quarrels.

His haughty and somewhat bellicose manner intimidated our accusors and it was clearly obvious that he was indeed an Englishman. So trouble was avoided.

We boarded the paquet. Soon we should be home.

We stayed on deck, so eager were we for a sight of land.

‘At last,’ said Dickon, ‘you are coming home to stay. Do you realize that had you come earlier, had you not dashed back to France, you could have saved us a good deal of trouble?’

‘I did not know that I should find my father dead.’

‘We have wasted a lot of time, Lottie.’

I nodded.

‘Now,’ he went on, ‘you’ll take me for what I am. Ambitious, ruthless, eager for possessions … and power, wasn’t it?’

‘There is something you have forgotten,’ I reminded him. ‘If you married me you would be marrying a woman who has absolutely nothing. I am penniless. The vast fortune which my father left in trust to me will all be lost. It will be taken by the revolutionaries. I don’t think you have thought of that.’

‘Do you imagine I should not have thought of such an important detail?’

‘So, Dickon … what are you thinking of?’

‘You, and how I shall make up for the lost years. And you, Lottie, what are you thinking? This man on whom I have foolishly turned my back for many years is ready to marry me—penniless as I am. And he was foolish enough to be ready to give up all he had acquired through a long life of ruthless scheming … and all for me.’

‘How was that?’

‘Lottie, when we drove through that square we were within an inch of being stopped, of being dragged from our coach and hanged on the lamp-post … both of us. If that had happened I should have lost all my possessions, for it is a sobering thought that when you die you cannot take them with you.’

‘Oh, Dickon,’ I said, ‘I know what you did for me. I shall never forget … ’

‘And you’ll take me in spite of what I am?’

‘Because of it,’ I said.

He kissed my cheek gently.

‘Look,’ he said. ‘Land. The sight of those white cliffs always uplifts me … because they are home. But never in all my life did I feel such joy in them as I do at this moment.’

I took his hand and put it to my lips and I held it there as I watched the white cliffs come nearer.