Poor “mammy!”
Meanwhile, she enjoyed herself that evening, as she, Dr. Paull, and Ralph sat together in a box to see a new piece, a serious comedy with both humorous and pathetic interest which was having a steady “run” at one of the principal theatres. Hugh exerted himself to be amusing, or, at least, to pay the undivided attention to Lilia’s dearest friend which he considered her due; and Mrs. Mervyn thought, more than once during the performance, “If there really is some love affair, it is going on favorably.”
So hoped Hugh. At least, so he hoped of this new acquaintance which he mentally designated his and Mercedes’ “friendship.” He believed his letter had “made it all right” between him and his offended patient.
But the next day passed, and the day after that, and no answer came.
Then Mrs. Mervyn departed, with the promise that he would send her full particulars of his house party at the Pinewood next month. She assured him at parting that everything would be ready for next month in a few days.
Good soul!—she journeyed home somewhat heavy-hearted on the subject of Hugh, of whom she was genuinely fond. When he returned from the bookstall with the newspapers he had bought to beguile her homeward journey, she noticed that he was deadly pale and looked very ill.
“He has been overfatiguing himself for me,” she dismally thought as the fields and hedges seemed to fly by the compartment in which she sat alone. “Poor, dear boy! I have been very thoughtless.”
She might have spared herself her misgivings. The cause of Dr. Paull’s pallor was a short paragraph in a society column his eyes rested upon as he brought her the papers:
“The Prince and Princess Andriocchi, who have been making a brief stay in the Metropolis, intend to take their departure for Madrid to-day. For the future they will reside in the well-known palace of the Duke and Duchess of Saldanhés, the parents of the princess, where an extensive suite of apartments has been magnificently re-decorated for their reception. One of the objects of the Prince Andriocchi’s recent visit to the Palazzo Andriocchi, in Florence, is said to have been the organisation for the removal of the most celebrated among the many renowned works of art accumulated by his ancestors to his new abode in the Spanish capital.”
So Mercedes had left him—without one word!