And with an aching heart he knocked, turned the handle, and entered the pretty apartment in which Lady Alice, her thin shoulders curved, as she held her hands over the fire, was sitting alone.
She looked at him over her shoulder strangely from her hollow eyes, without moving or speaking for a time. He bowed gravely, and said--
"I have this moment received your little note, Lady Alice, and have hastened to obey."
"Thanks--I have not been very well--so nervous--so very nervous," she repeated, without removing her sad and clouded gaze from his face.
"We all heard with regret that you had not been so well," said he.
"Well, we'll not talk of it--you're very good--I'm glad you've come--very nervous, and almost wishing myself back at Wardlock--where indeed I should have returned, only that I should have been wishing myself back again before an hour--miserably nervous."
And Lady Alice sniffed at her smelling-salts, and added--
"And Monsieur Varbarriere gone away on business for some days--is not he?"
"Yes--quite uncertain--possibly for two, or perhaps three, he said," answered Guy.
"And he's very--he knows--he knows a great deal--I forget what I was going to say--I'm half asleep to-day--no sleep--a very bad night."
And old Lady Alice yawned drearily into the fire.
"Beatrix said she'd look in; but everyone forgets--you young people are so selfish."
"Mademoiselle Marlowe was at the door as I came in, and said she would go on instead to the garden first, and gather some flowers for you."
"Oh! h'm!--very good--well, I can't talk to-day; suppose you choose a book, Mr. Strangways, and read a few pages--that is, if you are quite at leisure?"
"Perfectly--that is, for an hour--unfortunately I have then an appointment. What kind of book shall I take?" he asked, approaching one of the two tall bookstands that flanked an oval mirror opposite the fireplace.
Nearly half an hour passed in discussing what to read--the old lady not being in the mood that day to pursue the verse readings which had employed Guy Strangways hitherto.
"This seems a curious old book," he said, after a few minutes. "Very old French--I think upon witchcraft, and full of odd narratives."
"I had better try to translate it--the language is so antiquated."