"Giddiness, perhaps; but was I agitated?"
"Of course you were--nearly fell; would have fallen flat, indeed, but for me."
"I thank you, sir," was the gentle reply; for my asperity of manner was either unnoticed or unheeded by her; "but you seemed scarcely less so."
"I, madam!--why the deuce should I have been agitated?"
"Unless I greatly err, you were, and are so still."
"Were there two?" asked I, with increased annoyance.
"And--O, pardon my curiosity, dear sir--you know them?"
"Intimately;--and what then?" I asked, with growing irritation.
"Intimately!" she repeated, with surprise.
"There is nothing very singular in that, I suppose?"
"I have not as yet, but hope to do soon. We were all together in the same house in North Wales."
"Yes; Sir Madoc Lloyd's. Do you know Sir Madoc?"
"Who, then, that you are acquainted with knows him?"
"Your husband!" said I, glancing at the plain hoop on the delicate little hand, which she was now gloving nervously.
"He was there with you; must have been conversing with you often. I saw you all at church together one Sunday afternoon, and frequently on the terraces and on the lawn; while!"--she covered her face with her hands--"while I loitered and lurked like an outcast!"
Whew! Here was a discovery: it quite took my breath away, and I looked with deeper interest on the sweet and pale and patient little face.
I now remembered the letter I had picked up and returned to him; his confusion about it, and the horse he alleged to have lost by at a race that had not come off; his irritation, the postal marks, and the name of _Georgette_.
After such a termination to his visit to Craigaderyn, I could fancy that his situation as a guest or visitor at Walcot Park, even after he found the ladies there were ignorant of the nature of Sir Madoc's curt note to him, must be far from enviable, for such as he must live in hourly dread of insult, slight, or exposure; but how was I now situated with regard to her I loved?
Deemed, perhaps, guilty in her eyes, and without a crime; and if aware of the situation, the malevolent Guilfoyle would be sure to avail himself of it to the fullest extent.
"Lady Estelle is very lovely, as I could see," said my companion.
"In Craigaderyn church, most fully and favourably."