She seemed slightly
discomposed, and in haste.
I was by this time well aware of my lover's determination of character,
but I was not prepared for the tone in which he addressed the icy woman
calling herself his mother.
"I am ready to listen," he answered.
"John!" she returned, with mingled severity and sharpness, "let us have
no masquerading! You are perfectly fit to come home, and you must come at
once. The carriage is at the door."
"You are quite right, mother," answered John calmly; "I _am_ fit to go
home with you. But Rising does not quite agree with me. I dread such
another attack, and do not mean to go."
The drawing-room had a rectangular bay-window, one of whose three sides
commanded the door. The opposite side looked into a little grove of
larches. Lady Cairnedge had already realized the position of the room.
She darted to the window, and saw her carriage but a few yards away.
She would have thrown up the sash, but found she could not. She twisted
her handkerchief round her gloved hand, and dashed it through a pane.
"Men!" she cried, in a loud, commanding voice, "come at once."
The moment she went to the window, I sprang to the door, locked it, put
the key in my pocket, and set my back to the door.
I heard the men thundering at the hall-door. Lady Cairnedge turned as if
she would herself go and open to them, but seeing me, she understood what
I had done, and went back to the window.
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