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A tame doe had caught sight of him from her covert far away, came in light bounds to his side, and was pushing her delicate nostril into his drooping hand. At the sound of Lionel's hurried step, she took flight, trotted off a few paces, then turned, looking. "I did not know you had deer here." "Deer! in this little paddock! of course not; only that doe. Fairthorn introduced her here.
It was incredible, and yet beyond a doubt it was true. For all the love which he had showered upon Lionel, for all the sacrifices of self which he had made to shield him, this was Lionel's return. Were all the world against him he still must have believed Lionel true to him, and in that belief must have been enheartened a little.
"I know it will, dear Mrs. Verner. I shall be back soon, but I must hasten to acquaint my mother." "You will promise not to go away again, Lionel. It is your lawful home, remember." "I shall not go away again," was Lionel's answer; and Mrs. Verner breathed freely. To be emancipated from what she had regarded as the great worry of life, was felt to be a relief.
Sir Lionel's somewhat flighty manner was not at all congenial to Lady Dudleigh, and she treated him as the vigilant "keeper" always treats his flighty prisoner that is, with silent patience and persistent watchfulness. In a few minutes they were both seated inside the coach, and were driving away. The coach was a gloomy one, with windows only in the doors. The rest was solid woodwork.
She was an extraordinary exquisite and pretty little person, like a fairy on a Christmas tree, or a Dresden china shepherdess, not a bit, somehow, like a wife. "Yes," she said, twisting her wedding ring round her tiny manicured finger. "But sometimes I am a little anxious about him I know it's silly of me." Lionel's shyness fell away from him with disconcerting suddenness.
Dudleigh's own father was lying in the same house, but at that moment, whatever were his motives, Dalton seemed to have stronger claims on his filial duty, and Edith had to wait till this unlooked-for nurse had tenderly placed her father in his bed. The doctor, who had found Sir Lionel's case so trifling, shook his head seriously over Frederick Dalton.
"What should they do at Heartburg?" she fractiously asked. "They went over yesterday to remain until to-day, I hear." Subsiding into silence, she lay quite still, save for her panting breath, holding Lionel's hand as he bent over her. Some noise in the corridor outside attracted her attention, and she signed to him to open the door. "Perhaps it is Dr. Hayes," she murmured. "He is better than Jan."
Vaura turned her head as she passed with a smile, and the lines to Venus from Pitt's Virgil flashed across Lionel's memory: "And turning round her neck she showed That with celestial charms divinely glowed."
It was, at any rate, a straightforward mode of going to work, and Lionel determined to adopt it. Before mentioning it to his wife, he spoke to Lady Verner. And then occurred the obstruction. Lady Verner, though she did not oppose the plan, declined to take charge of Sibylla, or to retain her in her house during Lionel's absence. "I could not take her with me," said Lionel.
"I suppose," said Alban, "it will not now break Lionel's heart to learn that not an hour before I left London, I heard from a friend at the Horse Guards that it has been resolved to substitute the regiment for Lionel's; and it will be for some time yet, I suspect, that he must submit to be in gloriously happy. Come this way, George, a word in your ear."
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