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"I was growing impatient, Norman," she said; and then, remembering his criticisms on the wooing of women, she hastened to add "impatient at the want of novelty; it seems to me that in London ball-rooms all the men talk in the same fashion." Lord Arleigh laughed. "What are they to do, Philippa?" he asked. "They have each one the same duties to perform to please their partners and amuse themselves.
"You must learn to love me," she said, "to look on me in the place of the mother you have lost." And Marion Arleigh for the first time in her life imagined to herself what a mother's love would be like. "What a strange idea to keep you so long at school!" said Lady Ridsdale. "We must do our best to atone for it."
Half an hour afterward Lord Arleigh and his wife stood together under the great cedar on the lawn. They had left the pretty drawing-room, with its cool shade and rich fragrance, and Lord Arleigh stood holding his wife's hand in his. "You can really forgive me, Madaline?" he said. "You owe me no ill-will for all that I have made you suffer?" She smiled as she looked at him. "No," she replied.
The eyes were shadowed, the lips firm, the radiance and brightness that had distinguished her were gone; there were patience and resignation Instead. "How changed you are, my darling!" said Margaret, as she looked at her. "Who would have thought that my little girl would grow into a tall, stately, beautiful lady, dainty and exquisite? What did Lord Arleigh say to your coming, my darling?"
The graver meaning of her speech had quite escaped him. Then Lady Peters returned, and the conversation changed. "We are going to hear an opéra-bouffe to-night," said Philippa, when Lord Arleigh was leaving. "Will you come and be our escort?" "You will have a box filled with noisy chatterers the whole night," he remarked, laughingly.
These ideas flashed through her mind with the rapidity of lightning; then Miss Lyster, with an expression on her face that was a most perfect mixture of reverence and humility, said: "I hope Miss Arleigh will study herself and your ladyship, not me." "You must not look at it in that light. Miss Arleigh studies every one most kindly, I am sure.
"I must know it," she continued, impetuously; "when I say must, Adelaide, I mean it." "I dare not tell you I cannot tell you, Miss Arleigh. It would have been well for my brother had he never seen your face." "You have heard from him, then it is about him?" and the fair face flushed. "Yes, it is about him. I have had a letter from him this morning.
If Lord Arleigh talked, or danced, or showed attention to any lady, she would critically examine her claim to interest, whether she was beautiful, mentally gifted, graceful. But Philippa detected another thing if Lord Arleigh did not love her, it was at least certain that he loved no one else. The whole world was spoiled for her because she had not this man's love. She desired it.
It is simply this: that there would never be the least objection to Miss Arleigh following out any wish or any idea that should occur to her, but that in this case it would be impossible to carry out her wish. Miss Arleigh will soon be surrounded by friends and companions of her own age, and then she will not feel lonely." Miss Lyster's reply was a deep, silent bow.
She shut the book, and recovering herself with an effort, listened patiently to Mrs. Alwynn's remarks until, early in the afternoon, the sky cleared. Making some excuse about going to see her old nurse at the lodge at Arleigh, who was still ill, she at last effected her escape out of the room and out of the house. The air was fresh and clear, though cold.
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