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"I will wait until the atmosphere has cleared a little," said John Chetwynd, reflectively, "and then I'll tell her that at the end of the year we will leave Camberwell and take a larger house in a better neighbourhood." Thus, out of his love for his young wife, he made excuses for her and took her back to his heart again. And Bella? Jack's conduct puzzled her.
On the voyage back from Holland Mark had talked the matter over with Dick Chetwynd, and said that he thought of taking rooms for Mrs. Cunningham and Millicent at Reigate, and stopping at the hotel himself, and having the wedding breakfast there. "Of course, Dick, you will be my best man." "I should think so," Dick laughed.
She might have shown a more generous spirit, it is true. Since he had tacitly acknowledged that they had been mutually to blame, she might have offered something in the shape of an expression of regret; but peace in any shape and at any cost Chetwynd felt he must have.
And while the Chetwynd Lyles thus moved to depart in a cloud of outraged propriety, followed by others who likewise thought it well to pretend to be shocked at the proceeding, Gervase, dizzy, breathless, and torn by such conflicting passions as he could never express, was in a condition more mad than sane. "My God!" he muttered under his breath. "This this is love!
At ten o'clock a constable came with a message from the Lieutenant to Mr. Chetwynd that he would be glad if he would come down to the watch house. Dick did not wake the others, but freshening himself up by pouring a jug of water over his head, went at once with the constable. "Have you news?" he asked eagerly as he entered. "Yes, the men returned an hour ago.
To think that we came over here, four of us, and yourself, sir, on purpose to take care of Mr. Thorndyke, all well save a few knocks with those sticks, and Mr. Thorndyke killed and carried off before we have been on shore five minutes. A better young fellow I never put on the gloves with;" and Gibbons passed the back of his hand across his eyes. "Well, I must be off now," Chetwynd said.
Fulke is a dear boy, you know very consoling in his ways, though he says so little. Then Mr. Courtney volunteered to join them, and there they are. The Chetwynd Lyles are gone to a big dinner at the Continental this evening." "The Chetwynd Lyles let me see. Who are they?" mused Gervase aloud, "Do I know them?" "No, that is, you have not been formally introduced," said Dr. Dean."
"I wonder what that Nubian has to do with her?" said Lady Chetwynd Lyle, severely. "Nothing at all," replied the Doctor, calmly. "He is the merest servant the kind of person who is 'told off' to attend on the women of a harem." "Ah, I see you have been making inquiries concerning the princess, Doctor," said Lady Fulkeward, with a smile. "I have." "And have you found out anything about her?"
Lady Chetwynd Lyle meanwhile flushed with annoyance; she felt that Lady Fulkeward's remark was sarcastic, but she could not very well resent it, seeing that Lady Fulkeward was a peeress of the realm, and that she herself, by the strict laws of heraldry, was truly only "Dame" Chetwynd Lyle, as wife of an ordinary knight, and had no business to be called "her ladyship" at all.
"Yes; I should certainly like to lay hands on them, though I am afraid we should find it very hard to prove that they had anything to do with this affair." "I think that also, Mr. Chetwynd. Morally, we may feel absolutely certain; but, unless the boatmen noticed that one of their number was missing when they landed, we have at present no evidence to connect them with it."
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