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As she came towards him, Richard Calmady looked full at her. His head was carried somewhat high too. His face was very still. His eyes with those curiously small pupils to them were very observant, in effect hiding rather than revealing his thought.
"There, there, my good soul, don't blubber. Hysterics won't restore Lady Calmady to health, or bring Sir Richard back to England, home, and duty, or be a ha'porth of profit to yourself or any other created being. Keep your tears for the first funeral.
"What do you say, Julius?" Ormiston demanded at last. "I suppose our only thought is for Katherine for Lady Calmady?" he said. "And in that case I agree with Dr. Knott." Roger took another turn to the window, stood there awhile struggling with his natural desire to escape from so painful an embassy. "Very well, if you are not here, Knott, I undertake to tell her," he said at last.
While, from the springy turf of the green ride which runs eastward, parallel to the lime avenue came the thud and suck of hoofs and the voices of the stable boys, as they rode the long string of dancing, snorting race-horses out to the training ground for their morning exercise. Richard Calmady opened his eyes wide. "Ah, it's daylight!" he cried, in accents of joyfulness. "I am glad.
The importunate thought returned upon Katherine and with it a touch of her late melancholy. "Ah! one knows nothing for certain when one is frightened," she said. She moved closer to him, holding out her hand. "Here," she continued, "you are a little too shadowy, too unsubstantial, in this light, Dick. I would rather make more sure of your presence." Richard Calmady laughed very gently.
And so it happened that, in realising the ceaseless push of event on event, the ceaseless dying of dear to-day in the service of unborn to-morrow, her gentle seriousness touched on regret. How long she remained lost in such pensive reflections Lady Calmady could not have said. Suddenly the terrace door slammed. A moment later a man's footsteps echoed across the flags of the garden-hall.
For do I not still remain ignorant of the root of your sudden interest in my friend Dickie Calmady? And I thirst to learn how you propose to work him into the triumphant development of our family fortunes."
"It's too bad, altogether too bad!" broke out Honoria hotly. "Too bad of whom?" Mr. Quayle asked, with the utmost suavity. "Of the nameless, obtrusive, alien element, or of poor, dear Dick?" The young lady closed her parasol slowly, and turning, faced the sauntering crowd again. "Of Sir Richard Calmady, of course," she said. Her companion did not answer immediately.
He could be excellent company when he pleased. He had laid aside his roughness of manner and been excellent company to-night. Next him was Ormiston, while the seats immediately below were occupied by the men-servants, Winter at their head. Opposite to Richard, across the chapel, sat Lady Calmady.
"And there is no denying it would be a vastly more graceful one don't you think so?" Thus were smouldering fires of personal ambition quenched in Lady Calmady, as so often before. Richard's tenderness brought her to her knees. She hugged, with an almost voluptuous movement of passion, that half-rejected burden of maternity, gathering it close against her heart once more.
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