"Certainly," returned Fay; and with quick impulse she handed the reins to the groom, and sprung into the road. "Take the ponies up and down, Ford; I shall not be long. I was just going down on the beach for a breath of sea-air," she continued, turning to Margaret, "and I am so glad I have met you, because we can go together," for she thought Hugh would certainly not mind her exchanging a few courteous words with Miss Ferrers when they met face to face; besides Miss Ferrers had asked to speak to her.
"I wanted to know--but of course I see by your face--that Sir Hugh is better," began Margaret, but her dry lips would hardly fashion the words.
"Oh, yes," returned Fay, eagerly. "Doctor Martin says he is quieter, much quieter, this morning, and he hopes to find decided improvement in a few hours; oh, Miss Ferrers, it has been such a terrible time, I do not know how I have lived through it."
"It must have been dreadful for you, and you are looking ill yourself, Lady Redmond," with a pitying glance at the small white face that looked smaller and thinner since she saw it last.
"I do not know how I have been," returned Fay, simply. "I seemed to have no feeling, the time passed somehow, it was always meal-time, and one could not eat, and then night came, but it was not always possible to sleep. I was always wandering about, and it did not seem easy to pray, and then they came and told me it was wrong to grieve so, but how could I help it?"
"Was there no one to come to you, to be with you, I mean?" but Fay shook her head.
"I did not want them. Aunt Griselda would have come, but I would not let them send for her, she would only have troubled me. Erle--Erle Huntingdon I mean--came down, but I did not want to see him; it only made me cry, so he went away, and since then I have been alone."
"Poor child," returned Margaret, softly. Yes, she was not too young to suffer; she and Raby had not done full justice to her. The childish face had lost its baby roundness; the beautiful eyes were dim with weeping; the strained white look of endurance that one sees on older faces was on hers: and, with a sudden impulse that she could not control, Margaret stooped and kissed her. "Oh, I am so sorry for you, what you must have suffered," she said, in a voice that seemed full of tears.