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Many times, after she had parted with her, she felt inclined to open the oaken box with brass clasps, and see what the papers in it contained, but a nameless fear came over her. She did not dare to do what she had not done earlier. Madaline had constantly written to her, had told her of her lover, had described Lord Arleigh over and over again to her.
But he must not startle her, he reflected he saw how fragile she was. "You call me Madaline," she said again "but I do not know you." Before answering her, Lord Mountdean turned to Margaret. "Will you leave us alone?" he requested, but Lady Arleigh stretched out her hand. "That is my mother," she said "she must not be sent away from me." "I will not be long away, Madaline.
He laughed at himself, for he was nervous and timid; he longed to see Madaline, yet trembled at the thought of meeting her. "So this is love?" said Lord Arleigh to himself, with a smile. "I used to wonder why it made men cowards, and what there was to fear; I can understand it now."
The full day dwelt on her brows and sunned Her violet eyes, and all her Hebe bloom, And doubled his own warmth against her lips, And on the beauteous wave of such a breast As never pencil drew. Half light, half shade, She stood, a sight to make an old man young." He repeated the lines as he stood watching her, and then he went nearer and called: "Madaline!" Could he doubt that she loved him?
"No just tired," and no one knew better than Grace what a conscience prodder such a meeting as this proved to be that is "no one" except, perhaps, Rose Dixon. Determined to wait no longer than the very next afternoon, Grace asked both Cleo and Madaline over to her front porch directly after school, assuring their acceptance to her invitation by the lure of "a big secret to tell them."
The little wren stood and sung to his sitting wife his loud, ecstatic song, made all of her own name, Matilda, Urilda, Lucinda, Belinda, Adaline, Madaline, Caroline, or Melinda, as the case might be, singing as though every bone of his tiny body were a golden flute. The hummingbirds hung on invisible wings, and twittered with delight as they feasted on woodbine and honeysuckle.
"I think we were awfully stiff and snippy," and without waiting for approval she hurried after the disappearing chair, just as it turned into the avenue. "Would you like this!" offered Madaline, almost breathless as she overtook the two strangers. "Oh, I should love it!" exclaimed the little girl, the sincerity in her voice and expression vouching for the truth of her simple words.
She had hopes that something really wonderful would develop from her remarkable experience, and while she would have liked to tell Madaline and Cleo, she feared antagonistic opinions, and, as it was entirely her own personal secret, and not a matter of girl scout business, or even chums' interest, it seemed decidedly better to keep her own precious counsel.
"No," she agreed, mournfully, "none." "And we have none now," he said, with a happy laugh. "How astonished Vere will be when he returns and finds that Madaline is married! And I think that, if it can be all arranged without any great blow to his family pride, he will not be ill-pleased." "I should think not," she returned, listlessly.
It was a little less dreary for Madaline when her mother was with her. Though they did not talk much, and had but few tastes alike, Margaret was all devotion, all attention to her child. She was sadly at a loss to understand matters. She had quite expected to find Madaline living at Beechgrove she could not imagine why she was alone in Winiston House.
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