Mrs. Damian was sitting bolt upright amid her cushions. Honor started violently. Mrs. Damian spoke again quickly, but now in her usual kind, abrupt tone.
“Honor, child, it is eight o’clock, and the carriage will be coming. Goodnight, little creature! You will come again soon; tell Madame What’s-her--oh! Madeleine--that I will do myself the honor of calling on her to-morrow. Miss Folly will see you home; goodnight, my dear!”
And when Honor, bewildered, had stammered her thanks and adieux and been whisked away by Miss Folly, Mrs. Damian, still sitting bolt upright, repeated several times with emphasis, “Good gracious!” Then after a pause she added: “It’s high time I came! Lord forgive me for staying away so long!”
Calm before storm! In after days, Honor often looked back to that week that followed her first interview with Mrs. Damian. It was a peaceful week, memorable--it seemed then--only by the return of Patricia from Coventry; a softened, chastened Patricia, who had found, she declared, the remedy for most of the ills of life.
“Silence and solitude! Nothing like them, my dear. I shall be a Trappist nun as soon as I am old enough!”
Madame Madeleine and Soeur Séraphine went to return Mrs. Damian’s call; went again, by special invitation, to tea; came back looking very grave. After the second visit they showed--it was recalled later--peculiar tenderness toward Honor. Always kindness itself, it seemed as if they could not now do enough for her. A pat on her shoulder, a reconstructive touch on her hair-ribbon, an anxious eye on her appetite. Honor was deeply touched, but was also conscience-stricken. They did not dream, these dear ladies! Ought she to tell them, that her heart was no longer in the school? That all day long she was thinking of her mountains, and of her mountain friends? Was she false-hearted, ungrateful, wicked?
Then, one day, the bombshell exploded. Mrs. Damian had come, it appeared, with authority from Honor’s guardian, the mysterious Mr. Stanford, to take her away, if she judged it wise, to take her to America, to--virtually--to adopt her. Not only did Mrs. Damian think it wise, but Madame Madeleine and Soeur Séraphine agreed with her. With tears in her eyes, the little Sister tried to explain.