Dare returned to Vandon in the highest spirits, with an enormous emerald engagement-ring in an inner waistcoat-pocket.

He put it on Ruth's third finger a few days later, under the ancient cedar on the terrace at Vandon, a spot which, he informed her (for he was not without poetic flights at times), his inner consciousness associated with all the love scenes of his ancestors that were no more.
He was stricken to the heart when, after duly admiring it, Ruth gently explained to him that she could not wear his ring at present, until her engagement was given out.
"Let it then be given out," he said, impetuously.

"Ah! why already is it not given out ?" She explained again, but it was difficult to make him understand, and she felt conscious that if he would have allowed her the temporary use of one hand to release a fly, which was losing all self-control inside her veil, she might have been more lucid.

As it was, she at last made him realize the fact that, until Lord Polesworth's return from America in November, no further step was to be taken.
"But all is right," he urged with pride.

"I have seen my lawyer; I make a settlement.