“I fear you think me foolish and perhaps wrong for coming back so soon. I have been punished for my impatience. You know⁠—everyone knows now⁠—a painful story about my parentage. I knew of it before I went away, and I always meant to tell you of it if⁠—if we ever met again.”

There was a slight movement in Dorothea, and she unclasped her hands, but immediately folded them over each other.

“But the affair is matter of gossip now,” Will continued. “I wished you to know that something connected with it⁠—something which happened before I went away, helped to bring me down here again. At least I thought it excused my coming. It was the idea of getting Bulstrode to apply some money to a public purpose⁠—some money which he had thought of giving me. Perhaps it is rather to Bulstrode’s credit that he privately offered me compensation for an old injury: he offered to give me a good income to make amends; but I suppose you know the disagreeable story?”