"She does love you; but I thought I'd frighten you, for you had no right
to send Maude home alone; and it made me very cross, because I saw how
she felt it. Separation indeed! What can you be thinking of?"
He was thinking of a great deal, no doubt; and his thoughts were as
bitter as they could well be. He did not wish to separate; come what
might, he felt his place should be by his wife's side as long as
circumstances permitted it.
"Let me give you a word of warning, Lady Kirton. I and my wife will be
happy enough together, I daresay, if we are allowed to be; but the style
of conversation you have just adopted to me will not conduce to it; it
might retaliate on Maude, you see. Do not again attempt it."
"How you have changed!" was her involuntary remark.
"Yes; I am not the yielding boy I was. And now I wish to speak of your
son. He seems very ill."
"A troublesome intruding fellow, why can't he keep his ailments to his
own barracks?" was the wrathful rejoinder. "I told Maude I wouldn't have
him here, and what does she do but write off and tell him to come! I
don't like sick folk about me, and never did. What do _you_ want?"
The last question was addressed to Hedges, who had come in unsummoned. It
was only a letter for his master. Lord Hartledon took it as a welcome
interruption, went outside, and sat down on a garden-seat at a distance.
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