Such was the desperate experiment which
Mountjoy's generous and unselfish devotion to Iris now proposed to try.
The servant (duly entrusted with Miss Henley's letter) was placed on
the watch--and the event which had been regarded as little better than
a forlorn hope, proved to be the event that really took place. Lord
Harry was a passenger by the steamship.
Mountjoy's man presented the letter entrusted to him, and asked
respectfully if there was any answer. The wild lord read it--looked (to
use the messenger's own words) like a man cut to the heart--seemed at a
loss what to say or do--and only gave a verbal answer: "I sincerely
thank Miss Henley, and I promise to write when the ship touches at
Madeira." The servant continued to watch him when he went on board the
steamer; saw him cast a look backwards, as if suspecting that he might
have been followed; and then lost sight of him in the cabin. The vessel
sailed after a long interval of delay, but he never reappeared on the
deck.
The ambiguous message sent to her aroused the resentment of Iris; she
thought it cruel. For some weeks perhaps to come, she was condemned to
remain in doubt, and was left to endure the trial of her patience,
without having Mountjoy at hand to encourage and console her.
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