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Viviette could hear the people coming out of church on the other side of the garden wall. Their footsteps and their cheerful voices died away; the bell rang for lunch; and she went in. But her life during that morning and afternoon was wholly introspective.
'I destroyed it, he said. 'O Louis! why did you? she cried. 'I am going to follow him; I think it best to do so; and I want to know if he is gone and now the date is lost! 'Going to run after St. Cleeve? Absurd! 'Yes, I am! she said with vehement firmness. 'I must see him; I want to speak to him as soon as possible. 'Good Lord, Viviette! Are you mad? 'O what was the date of that ship!
'Then you must not be seen. We must stay at an inn here. 'O no! she said timidly. 'It is too near home to be quite safe. We might not be known; but if we were! 'We can't go back to Bath now. I'll tell you, dear Viviette, what we must do.
Dick, suddenly repentant, checked her. "No, Viviette. Don't go. I'm a brute and a fool. I didn't mean it. Forgive me. I would rather go on the rack than hurt your little finger. But it maddens me can't you believe it? It maddens me to see Austin " She broke into a little laugh and smiled dazzlingly on him. "I do believe you're jealous!" she interrupted. "Good heavens!" he cried passionately.
Now that he was actually within her coasts again Swithin felt a little more strongly the influence of the past and Viviette than he had been accustomed to do for the last two or three years. During the night he felt half sorry that he had not marched off to the Great House to see her, regardless of the time of day.
The young man stood till he was left quite alone in the churchyard, and then went slowly homeward over the hill, perhaps a trifle depressed at the impossibility of being near Viviette in this her one day of gaiety, and joining in the conversation of those who surrounded her. Not that he felt much jealousy of her situation, as his wife, in comparison with his own.
Her manner had caught him unawares; but now recovering himself he turned back determinedly. Bursting out upon the roof he clasped her in his arms, and kissed her several times. 'Viviette, Viviette, he said, 'I have come to marry you! She uttered a shriek a shriek of amazed joy such as never was heard on that tower before or since and fell in his arms, clasping his neck. There she lay heavily.
There was a short pause. Austin looked out of the window and Katherine wiped away some moisture in her eyes. This scene of sentimentality was not at all what she had come for. Soon she rose with a determined air and joined Austin by the window. "It was as a true friend that I wanted to speak to you to-day. To warn you." "About what?" "About Dick. Austin, he's madly in love with Viviette too."
This thought, which always came to him as soon as his passion was checked, filled him with deep humiliation. Viviette had reason on her side when she said, "Let us talk sense." He glowered at his fate, and tugged his tawny moustache for some time in silence.
He was a man of well-regulated habits, and did not like being taken unawares. Dick ought to have told him. Then there was their mother. Who would look after her? Dick was a dispensation of Providence. "Perhaps I might be a deputy dispensation, mightn't I?" said Viviette. "I don't think mother is so desperately attached to Dick as all that. It could be arranged somehow or other.
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