Will Dawson himself would not have dared do such a thing.
It filled her with alarm, and as Tom approached she was trying to determine in what manner she would crush him.

But when the audacious Thomas, having reached the gate, seated himself beside his mistress on the stone bench, the girl sprang to her feet in fright and indignation.

She began to realize the extent of her foolhardiness in going to that secluded spot with a stranger.
"How dare you approach me in this insolent fashion ?" cried Dorothy, breathless with fear.
"Mistress Vernon," responded Thomas, looking boldly up into her pale face, "I wager you a gold pound sterling that if you permit me to remain here by your side ten minutes you will be unwilling--" "John, John!" cried the girl, exultantly.

Tom snatched the red beard from his face, and Dorothy, after one fleeting, luminous look into his eyes, fell upon her knees and buried her face in her hands.

She wept, and John, bending over the kneeling girl, kissed her sunlit hair.
"Cruel, cruel," sobbed Dorothy.