Her chief emotion was an ecstatic
pride--because he had come, because he could not keep away, because
she had known that he would come, that he must come. And in fact was
it not his duty to come? Quietly he came into the hall, quietly she
closed the door, and when they were shut up together in the parlour
they both spoke in hushed voices, lest the invalid should be
disturbed. And was not this, too, highly proper?
She gave him the news of the house and said that Mrs. Tams was taking
duty in the sick-room till four o'clock in the morning, and herself
thenceforward, but that the invalid gave no apparent cause for
apprehension.
"Old Batch been again?" asked Louis, with a complete absence of any
constraint.
She shook her head.
"You'll find that money yet--somewhere, when you're least expecting
it," said he, almost gaily.
"I'm sure we shall," she agreed with conviction.
"And how are _you_?" His tone became anxious and particular.
She blushed deeply, for the outbreak of which she had been guilty and
which he had witnessed, then smiled diffidently.
"Oh, I'm all right."
"You look as if you wanted some fresh air--if you'll excuse me saying
so."
"I haven't been out to-day, of course," she said.
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