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Luttrell's friends were to dine with him, and as dinner was not until eight o'clock, they made rather a long circuit, and had some distance to return. Brian had joined Archie Grant; the second visitor was behind them with the keeper; Richard Luttrell had been accidentally separated from the others, and was supposed to be in front.
Luttrell's face softened curiously as she did so; she laid one of her hands upon Angela's shining hair with a caressing movement. "Dislike it? It would be my only happiness," said Angela.
Richard Luttrell's day was over; he had gone to a world where he might perhaps stand in need of that mercy which he had been only too ready to deny to others who had erred. Archie's elder brother, Donald Grant, and the keeper were hurrying to the spot. They found Brian on his knees beside the body, feeling with trembling hands for the pulse that beat no longer.
And if Brian returned to England with Percival, the story would probably become known to the Herons; and then how could he hope to marry Kitty? With Brian's return, too, some alteration in Mrs. Luttrell's will might possibly be expected.
Angela came to meet him at the door; she was pale, and her black dress made her look very slender and fragile, but she had the old, sweet smile and pleasant words of welcome for him, and could not understand why his face was so gloomy, and his eyes so obstinately averted from her own. It was four o'clock in the afternoon when Hugo was admitted to Mrs. Luttrell's sitting-room.
At last he halted, struck out at the ostrich with his stick, and turned to Hillyard with a gesture of helplessness. "But what can one do except the single thing one can't do?" "She gave me a message, if I should chance to meet you," answered Hillyard. Luttrell's face hardened perceptibly. "Let me hear it, Martin."
Luttrell's door," said Angela, with a quiver in her sweet voice. "And Richard is not here! Where is Richard?" There was silence. "Something has happened to Richard? Some accident some " She stopped, looked at Brian's averted face, and shivered as if an icy wind had passed over her. Doctor Muir took the candle from her hand, then opened his lips to speak. But she stopped him.
The visitors hurriedly took their departure; Donald Grant's wagonette had been at the door some little time, and, as soon as he had seen poor Richard Luttrell's remains laid upon a long table in the sitting-room, he drove silently away, with Archie on the box-seat beside him, and the three girls in the seats behind, crying over the troubles of their friends.
Percival stared at him for a full minute before he seemed quite to understand all that was implied in this proposal; then he burst into a fit of scornful laughter. "This is too absurd!" he cried. "Am I to give her up tamely because Mr. Brian Luttrell, as you call him, wishes to marry her? I am not so anxious to secure Mr. Brian Luttrell's happiness."
Then he remembered the visit he had promised, but there was no longer any time. He took the train to the New Forest, and three days later went to France. But of Luttrell's visit to Colonel Oakley, Stella Croyle never knew. And, again, very likely it would not have mattered if she had. They were parted too widely for insight and clear vision.
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