"Come, come, my dear Lucy," said Avondale, in a conciliatory tone, "you are a very clever woman; indeed you are, and have been quite invaluable to me. Do not be so hasty as to accuse me of ingratitude. I fancy you are trying to quarrel with me now for a purpose."
"Indeed?" said Mrs. Osborn, haughtily. "Who commenced the quarrel, pray? And what object could I have in quarreling with you?" The carriage stopped before the Osborn home as she ceased speaking.
"I asked you this morning for an additional loan of a hundred pounds," said Lord Avondale, "but as yet I have not received the favor."
"And I am not at all sure that you will," replied Lucy Osborn, disdainfully, as he handed her from the carriage. Lord Avondale, lifting his hat, bowed low, while Mrs. Osborn turned stiffly away and disappeared through the doorway of her home.
CHAPTER XXXI.--THE PASSING OF LORD AVONDALE
REACHING the privacy of her room, Mrs. Osborn threw herself into a chair and cried. She felt relieved afterward and thought how foolish it was of her to have quarreled with Lord Avondale. Unlocking a small drawer of her writing-desk, she fondly scrutinized, with an absorbing and passionate glance, a late photograph of the blasé Englishman.
"Yes," she said aloud, "I was very rude to Lenox. But I will make amends. He shall come to-night, and we shall be friends again. Of course the dear fellow can have the money for which he asked."
Drawing some writing material toward her, she wrote the following letter:
"My own dear Lenox:--I am so sorry that we quarreled to-day. No, it was not your fault, but all my own. When I think of you, and how much we have been to each other, I wonder that I could ever have spoken so rudely to you. You will forgive me, will you not, dear?
"Oh, Lenox, I forget all else at times in trying to make you happy. You cannot know how much you are to me.
"Come to-night at eleven. I will admit you at the side door of my room. Will have the money you requested.
"With my heart's best love, I am, all your own, Lucy."
Laying the letter aside, she wrote a note to her husband, enclosing her personal check for five hundred dollars and requesting him to bring the currency that evening. Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was almost four o'clock. Addressing two envelopes, one to Lord Avondale and the other to her husband, she hastily enclosed the letters and rang for her maid, requesting her to deliver them at once.