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Benoite cheered me up, I can tell you, better than you do. 'What matter to cry? she asked. 'If he does come back, you will still be the mistress of Verner's Pride. And so I shall." Lionel let go her hands. She sped off to the house, eager to find Captain Cannonby. He her husband leaned against the trunk of a tree, bitter mortification in his face, bitter humiliation in his heart.
He could not say: "But I wish to press you upon the points; to ascertain beyond doubt that Frederick Massingbird did really die; that he is not living." "Did Cannonby stay until he was buried?" he asked aloud. "Yes." "You are sure of this?" Sibylla looked at him curiously. She could not think why he was recalling this; why want to know it?
He excused himself by saying that he did not think I should like to see him; and he had waited to bury him before returning." Lionel fell into a reverie. If this, that Captain Cannonby had stated, was correct, there was no doubt that Frederick Massingbird was safely dead and buried.
"Has Captain Cannonby arrived at the house to-day, do you know, Wigham?" "Who, sir?" "A strange gentleman from London. Captain Cannonby." "I can't rightly say, sir. I have been about in the stables all day. I saw a strange gentleman cross the yard just at dinner-time, one I'd never seen afore. May be it was him." A feeling came over Lionel that he could not see Captain Cannonby before them all.
If Frederick Massingbird were indeed in life, Verner's Pride was no longer his. But it was not of that he thought; it was of the calamity that would involve his wife. A calamity which, to the refined, sensitive mind of Lionel Verner, was almost worse than death itself. What would the journey bring forth for him? Should he succeed in seeing Captain Cannonby?
"Who?" sharply interrupted Sibylla. Mr. Gordon looked surprised. Her tone had betrayed something of eager alarm, not to say terror. "Captain Cannonby, Mrs. Verner. A friend of mine just returned from Australia. Business took him to Paris as soon as he landed." "Is he from the Melbourne port? Is his Christian name Lawrence?" she reiterated breathlessly. "Yes to both questions," replied Mr. Gordon.
"What will you give me for some good news, Sibylla?" "What about?" she rejoined. "Need you ask? There is only one point upon which news could greatly interest either of us, just now. I have seen Cannonby. He is here, and " "Here! At Verner's Pride?" she interrupted. "Oh, I shall like to see Cannonby; to talk over old Australian times with him." Who was to account for her capricious moods?
Lionel supposed that the information had been imparted to her by Captain Cannonby; he never doubted but that she had been told Frederick Massingbird had returned and was on the scene; that he might come in any moment even that very present one as they spoke to put in his claim to her. "What am I to do?" she cried, her emotion becoming hysterical. "Oh, Lionel! don't you give me up!"
"I am sure of it only so far as that Captain Cannonby told me so," replied Sibylla. The reservation struck upon him with a chill; it seemed to be a confirmation of his worst fears. Sibylla continued, for he did not speak "Of course he stayed with him until he was buried. When Captain Cannonby came back to me at Melbourne, he said he had waited to lay him in the ground.
I could have wished it kept from her, until we were at some certainty." "Oh, come, Mr. Verner, take heart!" impulsively cried Captain Cannonby, all the improbabilities of the case striking forcibly upon him. "The thing is not possible; it is not indeed." "At any rate, your testimony will be so much comfort for my wife," returned Lionel gladly. "It has comforted me.
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